Arun Dhumal shows papers of Delhi house of Virbhadra’s wife

Our Correspondent

UNA, APRIL 21

Arun Dhumal, son of former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, showed the registration documents of a house, purchased by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife Pratibha Singh in May 2014 in New Delhi at a cost of Rs 4.3 crore, to mediapersons here today.

He said the registration of the house number W-122, located in a posh colony at Greater Kailash, Part-1, was done on May 13, 2014, while the Lok Sabha polls were held in Himachal Pradesh on May 7 and the counting was scheduled to be held on May 16.

Arun said the timing of the registration drew suspicion. Pratibha was contesting from Mandi. He said it was possible that the registration of the house was deliberately delayed to avoid mentioning of the property in Pratibha’s affidavit at the time of filing of the nomination papers and secondly, it was also possible that money collected through unknown sources during the run-up to the elections was used to pay for the purchase of property.

Arun said as per information available, it was this house which was attached by the Enforcement Directorate in view of the cases pertaining to disproportionate assets against Virbhadra Singh and his family members.

He pointed out that Dev Kumar Pathak was a common witness signatory in the registration deeds of Pratibha Singh’s Greater Kailash house and the Mehrauli farm house purchased in the name of Maple Destination and Dreambuild, owned jointly by the CM’s son Vikramaditya Singh and his sister.

Arun questioned the Chief Minister whether it was the same Dev Kumar Pathak, who was a Director of Venture Energy and Technologies, of which Vakamullah Chandershekhar was a promoter. He said the company was extended undue favours by the state government during the present and previous Congress regimes.

Arun demanded that either the Chief Minister or the former MP should explain to the people regarding the source of income from which the house in Delhi was purchased.

He further questioned as to why the Chief Minister had wrongly stated that the property attached by the ED belonged to his son, while the truth was that it belonged to his wife. He also asked the CM to come clean on his family property attached by the ED.