Hearing in disproportionate assets case against Virbhadra Singh to begin October 22

Arguments in the disproportionate assets case against former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh, his wife and others, will commence on October 22, a Delhi court said Wednesday.

Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj passed the directions after the CBI said that it has supplied all the documents, filed with the charge sheet, to the accused.

As per the chargesheet, Singh had amassed assets worth around Rs 10 crore, disproportionate by 192% to his total income during his tenure as a Union Minister.

The final report, filed against nine people for alleged offences punishable under section 109 (abetment) and 465 (punishment for forgery) of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, arrayed around 225 witnesses and 442 documents.

Besides the 82-year-old Congress leader and his wife Pratibha Singh, the report also arrayed as accused LIC agent Anand Chauhan, as also Chunni Lal Chauhan, Joginder Singh Ghalta, Prem Raj, Vakamulla Chandrasekhar, Lawan Kumar Roach and Ram Prakash Bhatia.

The matter was transferred by the Supreme Court to the Delhi High Court, which on April 6, 2016 had asked the CBI not to arrest Singh and had directed him to join the probe.

On November 5 last year, the apex court had transferred Singh's plea from Himachal Pradesh HC to Delhi HC, saying it was not expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, but "simply" transferring the petition "in interest of justice and to save the institution (judiciary) from any embarrassment".