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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley on Monday accused Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh of corruption. Jaitley suggested Singh extended favours to a power company in exchange for monetary compensation to him and his family.
The Congress said Vice President Rahul Gandhi was examining the charges.
Jaitley, the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said a hydel power company, Venture Energy and Technology Private Limited (VETPL), was given an extension of 10 months by Singh’s Cabinet to complete a hydel project in Sai Kothi, even as the company had defaulted in the past. The BJP leader alleged this favour was extended as part of a deal between the power company and the Himachal CM.
“It appeared that a favour was being shown to the company... [and] a quid pro quo was offered by [this] company to Virbhadra Singh and his family around the same period,” Jaitley’s letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.
The BJP leader said the quid pro quo could be interpreted by studying the election affidavits of the CM and that of Pratibha Singh, wife of the CM, that show an unsecured loan of Rs 3.9 crore by Vakamulla Chandersekhar, promoter of VETPL. This loan, Jaitley said, was absent from the CM’s earlier affidavit which was submitted in 2012. The power company was given an extension in September 2013.
Citing another instance of favours being sought by the Himachal Pradesh CM, Jaitley said another company promoted by Chandersekhar, Tarini Infrastructure Limited, had family members of the CM as shareholders. He said the filings obtained from the Registrar of Companies showed Pratibha Singh; Vikramaditya Singh, son of the CM; Aparajita Kumari, daughter of the CM and Amit Pal Singh, who is an officer on special duty to the CM, as shareholders of Tarini.
“Of all the cases I have seen till now, I have no hesitation in saying this is an open and shut case against the Chief Minister,” Jaitley said.
