Vikramaditya Singh, son of Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh, was called for questioning by the Enforcement Directorate on September 1 at the agency’s headquarters here in a money laundering case, but he failed to appear and has instead sought some more time. Vikramaditya was called for questioning in connection with a disproportionate assets case being investigated by the agency against the Himachal CM and his family members. The ED, which has already attached assets of Singh worth more than Rs 8 crore, had filed a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against the CM, his wife Pratibha Singh and his LIC agent last November.
Vikramaditya Singh has already been questioned by the CBI in a related case seeking information on source of investments to some of his assets. On Tuesday, the ED also filed a chargesheet in a special court here against Virbhadra Singh’s LIC agent Anand Chauhan who is in judicial custody ever since he was arrested from Chandigarh on July 9. The ED has claimed before the court that it would file a supplementary chargesheet in the case later as the probe is yet to conclude.
A source in the ED said that the agency has got some fresh leads on investments made by the Himachal CM and his family members, and his son’s questioning is important in that connection. The agency has already questioned Pratibha Singh last month under the PMLA. The anti-money laundering agency has found evidence of forgery against the Himachal CM for using an antedated stamp paper. In this connection it had verified with the government’s Nashik printing press and found that Virbhadra associates had allegedly forged registers and obtained antedated stamp papers for him and concocted antedated agreements with apple dealers to justify his family income which went up from Rs 47.35 lakh before an Income Tax (I-T) raid in December 2011 to Rs 6.57 crore after the raid.
The revised I-T returns were filed by Singh in 2012 for assessment year 2008-09 to 2011-12. He raised his family income for these three years from Rs 47.35 lakhs to Rs 6.57 crore after the case of disproportionate assets was made against him.
-indiatimes news