Two Ministers in the Himachal Government — Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma and Excise Minister Prakash Chaudhary have lambasted the Dhumal family for their malicious and mischievous propaganda against Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.
Sharma said that the Dhumal family was making baseless and wild accusations against the Chief Minister out of frustration as their misdeeds were coming out in public. He said that the Dhumal family was trying to divert public attention from their wrong doings by unnecessarily raising non-issues and have stooped down to the lowest level of meanness by indulging in mud-slinging.
Sharma said that Arun Dhumal, younger son of former Chief Minister, had tried to create hype in the media on income tax returns of Virbhadra Singh, as if serious irregularity has been committed.
Both the Minister said that he should know that there is a laid down provision for revising an Income Tax Return by any individual and there is nothing wrong in it. The matter was looked into by the I-T authorities and after thorough scrutiny of the returns filed by Virbhadra Singh, no wrong or illegal transaction was
found by them.
They said that the same issue was raised by BJP leader Arun Jaitley during the recent Assembly elections to malign the image of Virbhadra Singh and draw political gain in
the election.
Dhumal and his family members have not learnt any lesson from it that false and frivolous accusations don’t last the test of truth, and were unnecessarily flogging the same dead horse in his frustration.
Regarding taking of a loan by Virbhadra Singh from an individual, the ministers said that it was a right of an individual to take a loan, and what was wrong in it. Virbhadra Singh had taken a loan at 12 per cent interest through cheque after adopting proper procedure and it was duly documented.
Arun Dhumal was distributing the illegally obtained copies of the Income Tax Returns of Virbhadra Singh to the Media, which was an offence in itself. Still, he should have had application of common sense to see that the loans about which he was making lot of hue and cry, is reflected in the various returns and chief minister was paying interest on it.
Instead of pointing fingers at others, Dhumal family should tell the people as to how they had grabbed a public school, and acquired a Petrol Pump and Diamond Jewellery Shop at Jalandhar.
Ministers alleged that Arun Dhumal who was a manager of Delhi Public School, Jalandhar cheated the other two partners Rajeev Bhatnagar and Vipin Mahajan by bringing in another partner Sanjeev Vohra and grabbed the entire property and school.
The matter is in the court where Arun Dhumal is accused of cheating. They should also disclose as to how Anurag Thakur obtained bonafide certificates of both Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to get a Petrol Pump and of Himachal Pradesh to take control of HPCA.