Charge sheet filed against Virbhadra Singh in graft case (Second Lead)

SHIMLA - A charge sheet was filed against Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh in a special court here Friday, hours after the Himachal Pradesh High Court dismissed his petition to transfer a corruption case against him to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

State Vigilance Bureau Inspector General K.C. Sadyal told IANS that a charge sheet was presented in the special court of B.L. Soni against Virbhadra Singh and his wife Pratibha Singh.

The court fixed Oct 4 as the next date for proceedings in the case.

Meanwhile, Virbhadra Singh, in a statement issued from New Delhi, said: “Many legal options are available before me.”

“The CD case is pathetic example of political vendetta. Even during the last tenure (1998 to 2003), the Dhumal-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government made out false and fabricated cases against me. This is nothing but a gross misuse of official machinery.”

Earlier, a division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Deepak Gupta observed that it was not a fit case for transferring the probe to the CBI at this point of time.

Virbhadra Singh had sought the case transfer to the CBI under Article 226 of the constitution, which deals with special powers of high courts.

The bench observed that there were mainly two questions as far as the investigation by the CBI was concerned - whether it is an appropriate case, and whether it is the appropriate stage.

Referring to the apex court judgments, the bench said: “It is fairly clear that the answer would depend on the facts and circumstances of each case. There is no straitjacket formula which can be applied in finding an answer to the questions”.

“Unless one sees the police report under Section 173 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for the court to deal with the issue.”

“Unless, the accused-petitioners herein see the challan, it would be difficult for them to choose the further course of action since several options are available to the accused. It would all depend on the materials collected by the police and presented before the court, be it on authenticity or source, the bench siad.

The bench noted that senior counsel R.S. Cheema (representing Virbhadra Singh) has made an attempt to refer to several lacunae.

“But the position is that nobody has seen what the police report is and without seeing the police report, it is not proper for this court in exercise of its jurisdiction under Article 226 of the constitution to decide as to whether it is an appropriate case and whether it is the appropriate stage for the court to issue a direction for change of investigating agency in the case.

Virbhadra Singh had petitioned the high court that the government registered a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act against him and his wife Aug 3, 2008, after Prem Kumar Dhumal became chief minister in December 2007, on the basis of an audio CD released by his political adversary Vijai Singh Mankotia in 2007.

In the CD, Virbhadra Singh was purportedly heard referring to some monetary transactions on the phone with Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Mahinder Lal, who is now dead. The CD also contained the voices of his wife and some industrialists.

The high court Sep 27 reserved its order after hearing arguments of both parties for three days.

Earlier, a single bench of the high court Sep 3 turned down the ministers petition to transfer the case to the CBI under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code.