HP CM Virbhadra Singh withdraws plea for FIR copy in DA case

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today withdrew from a Delhi court his plea seeking a copy of FIR lodged against him in an alleged disproportionate assets case.

Special CBI Judge S C Rajan allowed Virbhadra Singh to withdraw his plea after his counsel said they are not pressing their application.

During the brief hearing, advocate Mudit Jain, appearing for the Chief Minister, told the judge that they have already inspected the judicial records of the case in pursuance to the court's September 28 order.

He further said that since they have inspected judicial records, they do not want to press the application seeking direction to CBI to supply copy of FIR.

The court, after hearing the submissions, allowed Virbhadra's counsel to withdraw the application.

The court had on Monday asked the CBI to file reply on the CM's plea moved through advocate Vijay Aggarwal, two days after the agency conducted searches at Virbhadra's Delhi and Shimla residences.

The court had granted Singh the permission to inspect the judicial records of the case lodged against him.

CBI had registered a Preliminary Enquiry (PE), which was converted into a regular case, against Singh and his family members for allegedly amassing wealth of Rs 6.1 crore, alleging it was disproportionate to their known sources of income during 2009-11 when he was serving as Union Minister of Steel in the UPA government.

The agency had filed the FIR in a designated court here under Prevention of Corruption Act, naming Singh, his wife Pratibha Singh, lIC agent Anand Chauhan and Chunni lal Chauhan.

CBI has claimed that during this period, Singh, a six- time Chief Minister, invested Rs 6.1 crore in life insurance policies in his and his family members' names through Chauhan.

In an unprecedented action on a serving Chief Minister, CBI had on September 26 searched the official residence of 81-year-old Singh and 10 other places in connection with the case, the day of the marriage of his daughter.

Searches were also carried out at his official residence in Delhi, his two houses in Shimla and Rampur and a farm house in Mehrauli in South Delhi which is in the name of his son Vikramaditya Singh.