I-T heat on Virbhadra Singh: Unaccounted cash trail leads to his children

I-T heat on Virbhadra Singh: Unaccounted cash trail leads to his children

FP Politics August 22, 2014, 13:29:08 IST

The Income Tax department has unearthed Rs 5.41 crore in unaccounted cash transactions for a farmhouse bought by the children of Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh, a report in the Indian Express said . The I-T department is working towards a strong case against the chief minister who has faced flak over corruption for the past couple of years. Advertisement While the CBI has been unable to make much headway in the disproportionate assets cases against the CM, the I-T department has found transactions for the farmhouse linked to CEO of Tarini Group of Companies Vakamulla Chandrashekhar, who was earlier in the news for giving Virbhadra and his wife unsecured loans of Rs 1.

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I-T heat on Virbhadra Singh: Unaccounted cash trail leads to his children

The Income Tax department has unearthed Rs 5.41 crore in unaccounted cash transactions for a farmhouse bought by the children of Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh, a report in the Indian Express said .

The I-T department is working towards a strong case against the chief minister who has faced flak over corruption for the past couple of years.

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Virbhadra Singh. PTI

While the CBI has been unable to make much headway in the disproportionate assets cases against the CM, the I-T department has found transactions for the farmhouse linked to CEO of Tarini Group of Companies Vakamulla Chandrashekhar, who was earlier in the news for giving Virbhadra and his wife unsecured loans of Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 2.4 crore respectively.

The recent findings by the I-T department form just the tip of the iceberg and more problems might be in the offing for the ever-defiant Virbhadra.

According to the Indian Express report, the original seller of the farmhouse plot, a man named Pichshwar Gadde, told the I-T department that the farmhouse was sold in 2011 to M/s Maple Destination Dreambuild Pvt Ltd for a sum of Rs 6.61 crore. The company Maple Destination Dreambuild belongs to Virbhadra’s son.

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“However, the registration deed and Maple’s records show that the farmhouse was bought for Rs 1.2 crore,” the report adds.

Earlier this year, when the then Opposition leader in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley accused Singh of indulging in an “open-and-shut” case of corruption by taking a bribe from a private power firm for granting it a 10-month extension to complete a project, Singh had claimed that his income was from his apple orchards. “The case against me is politically motivated,” Virbhadra Singh had said.

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Earlier this month, when BJP demanded Virbhadra’s resignation, the defiant CM turned to dub BJP’s conduct as “shameful”.

The latest report would no doubt weaken Virbhadra’s defence with fresh allegations indicating that an array of middlemen were involved in ferreting away the unaccounted cash. In fact, according to reports , the Delhi HC has now called for all records of the CBI and the Income Tax department in a case of alleged corruption and money laundering against Singh.

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The court’s direction came after advocate and AAP leader Prashant Bhushan said that despite a lapse of two years, the CBI has not completed its preliminary inquiry in the case and that the CBI director appeared to be preventing the registration of a first information report (FIR) against the Himachal CM.

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