Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is all set to face Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday.
Confirming his resolve to depose before ED in the case registered against him under Prevention of Money laundering Act, Singh on Tuesday said that he was willing to assist ED for fair investigation.
Talking to media on the sidelines of the inaugural ceremony of Book Café at Shimla, CM Virbhadra Singh affirmed that the ED summons had reached him and the agency had sought his personal appearance in the case. Terming the ED action to be unprecedented in such cases, Virbhadra Singh said, “I am summoned so I will definitely go.” Such an action by the investigating agency was not new to him, added Virbhadra Singh.
He said that he had already deposed before CBI and Income Tax department in the same matter but as he had been summoned by ED now, he had decided to go to Delhi on the prescribed date and face the investigation agency.
As the investigation in the disproportionate assets case and money laundering matter has picked up pace just months before the assembly elections in the state, CM Virbhadra Singh has been terming them to be politically motivated cases.
While ED has summoned Virbhadra Singh after attaching some properties of his family members last week, CBI had last month filed charge-sheet against him in the Disproportionate Assets case and the CBI court is likely to take up the charge-sheet on April 24.
Enforcement Directorate had lodged FIR under the Prevention of Money laundering Act against Virbhadra Singh and others after the CBI booked him in a case of Corruption and Disproportionate Assets in September, 2015.
CBI has already filed a charge sheet against Virbhadra Singh in CBI court and Virbhadra Singh has been alleged of creating financial assets of around Rs 10-crore, disproportionate to his known sources of income. The agency has alleged him of making assets, 192 percent disproportionate to his total income during his stint as a Union Minister.
Besides Virbhadra Singh, his wife Pratibha Singh, Chunni lal Chauhan, Joginder Singh Ghalta, Prem Raj, Vakamulla Chandrasekhar, lawan Kumar Roach and Ram Prakash Bhatia have also been included in the charge-sheet of CBI.