Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Wednesday attached a flat worth Rs 7.93 crore in New Delhi in a money laundering case it is investigating against Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

“We have attached a flat in Greater Kailash-1 in the case against Virbhadra Singh. The unaccounted income under probe was invested in this flat,” a senior ED official said.

The flat reportedly belongs to Virbhadra’s son Vikramaditya Singh.

According to sources, the ED issued a provisional attachment order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and seized some LIC policies, bank fixed deposits and two storeys of a building in GK-1. These assets have been considered “proceeds of crime” of money laundering.

In November 2015, the ED registered a case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at its New Delhi office against Singh and his family members, including his wife Pratibha.

The ED’s case is primarily an offshoot of a case registered by the CBI on September 23 in New Delhi alleging that Singh tried to legitimise an unaccounted income of Rs 6.03 crore by revising his income tax returns for three years – 2009 to 2012 – and also invested more than Rs 5 crore in LIC policies through Anand Chauhan, a local LIC agent, who had also signed an MoU with the CM to manage his orchard.

The period of the probe, the official said, primarily covers Virbhadra Singh’s term as Union Minister for Steel and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) between 2009 and 2012.

According to the CBI, in 2012, Singh filed revised income tax returns for assessment years 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12, revising his income from Rs 7.35 lakh to Rs 2.21 crore, Rs 15 lakh to Rs 2.8 crore and Rs 25 lakh to Rs 1.55 crore respectively in the revised ITRs.

The revised incomes were shown to be from agricultural sources, and Singh cited Srikhand Orchards in Rampur, Shimla district, although the income shown was disproportionate to the income that could have been generated from it. LIC agent Chauhan was appointed manager of the orchard who allegedly received 2 per cent of the total income generated from it, CBI had claimed.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, on an official tour for the closing ceremony of a local fair in Bilaspur, termed the ED’s action “uncalled for”.

“The attachment of the property of HP State Youth Congress president Vikramaditya Singh in New Delhi by the ED is an action uncalled for as it is not being done by orders of the courts.

This is a suo motu action of the Enforcement Directorate taken under pressure from top political bosses,” he said in his first reaction.

“There are three central agencies probing a single case related to my Income Tax returns. I am being targeted at the behest of former CM Prem Kumar Dhumal, who has roped in Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to frame me and my family in false cases,” he added.

Earlier, Virbhadra Singh gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming that he was a good man and may not be fully aware of what was happening.

Vikramaditya Singh also reacted sharply to the move and suspected political hand behind the ED’s action.

“ED is not a professional agency. It is run by political bosses. There are already matters pending in the High Court, Supreme Court and Income Tax Tribunal. There is no final order of any court but the ED has chosen to act against me. That sounds highly inappropriate and vindictive,” he told The Indian Express.

Meanwhile, the ministers in Himachal Pradesh expressed full solidarity and faith in the leadership of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and termed the “coercive and extreme step of the ED” as “a highly politically motivated action to destabilise the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh.”

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