The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Himachal Pradesh High Court order restraining it from interrogating Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in an alleged corruption case.

An apex court bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu said it would hear the plea by the investigating agency on the opening day after the Dusshera holidays on October 26. The court said this as Additional Solicitor General PS Patwalia mentioned the matter before the court on Thursday morning.

On Wednesday, the CBI and the Income Tax department filed a status report in the Delhi High Court on the allegations against Singh in the assets case in a sealed cover.

Earlier, a public interest litigation on the issue was filed by a non-governmental organisation, Common Cause, but Virbhadra Singh challenged its maintainability, saying it was filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan with a motive as the state government had initiated action against him in a land allotment matter.

The court later discharged the NGO and Bhushan from the matter and appointed as amicus curiae to assist the court on the issue. The Centre had earlier said that a prima facie case of money laundering appears to be made out against Virbhadra Singh. The court posted the matter for further hearing on November 4.

Singh, a senior Congress leader, is accused of racking up illegal wealth, far more than his known sources of income. The investigation is stuck, the agency told the court, as the High Court had stopped it from interrogating Singh and had granted him protection.

Singh was charged with accumulating disproportionate assets when he was Union Minister for Mining in the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre. The CBI has also asked the top court to transfer the case from the Himachal Pradesh High Court to Delhi.