In the midst of bribery allegations against him, Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh arrived in the national Capital on Tuesday to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi to explain his side of the story even as the CBI said it is examining a letter written by BJP leader Arun Jaitley and did not rule out the possibility of questioning Virbhadra at a later stage. Meanwhile, hundreds of BJYM activists led by its chief Anurag Thakur braved water cannons to protest against Singh in Delhi.
Singh decided to knock at the door of 10 Janpath against the backdrop of leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley’s letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the CBI. In his letter, Jaitley sought a probe against the Himachal Pradesh CM for allegedly favouring a hydel power company, which gave him and his family `4 crore as an unsecured loan and stakes in the company.
“Frustrated BJP leaders are fabricating false stories and twisting and tampering facts to suit their convenience. They have been waging the same old issues pertaining to my Income Tax return and loan taken by my family, which have been replied and clarified time
and again and there is
nothing material or new in them,” Singh told reporters here on Tuesday.
His wife, Prathiba Singh, who has also been accused, visited the AICC headquarters and met senior party leaders.
Singh claimed he was facing the wrath of Opposition leaders for exposing the wrongdoings of his successor Prem Kumar Dhumal and his sons.
“Read HP CM’s statement. Corruption is not about an extension granted to the Company but accepting the loan or the shareholding in return. It proves my charge of the quid pro quo. If for granting a favour, loans and shareholdings are accepted from a company, is it not a conflict of interest,” Jaitley wrote in response to the CM’s statement.
Trouble could be staring into Singh’s face with the CBI examining the letter written by Jaitley. The agency has not ruled out the possibility of questioning the Congress veteran at a later stage.
The agency has already registered a Preliminary Enquiry against the CM in a different case of alleged corruption relating to the period when Singh was the Union Minister for Steel.
Earlier in the day, scores of BJP youth wing activists staged a protest outside Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s residence demanding an explanation from him on the charges of corruption against the Himachal Pradesh CM.
Police resorted to mild force and water cannons as the demonstrators, led by BJYM chief Anurag Thakur, tried to cross over the barricades set up by them. As they refused to relent, policemen wielding sticks chased the protesters to some distance to disperse them. Several of the protesters were then detained and taken to the nearby Tughlaq Road police station.
