E-Paper
‘Himachal CM may have forged papers to legitimise illegal income’
An agreement paper between Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh and insurance agent Anand Chauhan indicates that Singh may have fudged records to legitimise his illegal income.
An agreement paper between Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh and insurance agent Anand Chauhan indicates that Singh may have fudged records to legitimise his illegal income.
The date of the agreement is June 15, 2008, but the stamp paper, on which the agreement was executed, may have been purchased after September 2015 when the CBI filed a case against Singh.
The entries in the stamp vendor’s record show that the particular stamp paper was bought by someone called Laik Ram of Kotkhai tehsil in Shimla district but that entry was overwritten with Chauhan’s name. Both the papers are entered in the vendor’s record as 1284. A copy of the stamp papers and the vendor’s record is with HT.
“The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has recovered a copy of this particular stamp paper along with a statement from Laik Ram,” sources said. Based on the evidence, the ED attached Singh’s assets on March 23. The case against the CM and his family is that he has amassed `6 crore from 2009-12 during his stint as the Union minister of steel.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) says Chauhan would manage the CM’s orchid in Shimla for a commission and also invest the earnings for three years. But this agreement may have been done to create a source for the CM’s unaccounted income.
Repeated attempts to reach the CM’s office yielded no response.
