Now Virbhadra Singh & Wife

Virbhadra and wife booked in corruption case


Shimla/New Delhi, Aug. 4: Union steel minister Virbhadra Singh and his wife have been booked in a two-year-old corruption case by the Himachal Pradesh vigilance bureau, triggering an angry response from the veteran Congress leader who saw it as an act of political vendetta by the BJP regime.

After getting the state government’s approval, an FIR was registered under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, on Monday night against Mr Singh and his wife, Pratibha, said D.S. Manhas, director-general of the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau. The sections relate to misuse of official position and criminal misconduct.

"The FIR is a cheap gimmick which shall collapse under its own weight. It is another desperate move to damage me and the Congress through false and baseless accusations and unscrupulous vilification," Mr Singh said, adding it was a political vendetta.

The case has been registered on the complaint of a retired IAS officer, S.M. Katwal, on the basis of an audio CD released by former Himachal Pradesh minister Vijay Singh Mankotia in 2007 claiming that it contained the voice of Mr Singh and his wife talking to a retired bureaucrat, Mohinder Lal (who has since died), about alleged corruption, a release from the state vigilance bureau said.

The CD was sent for a CFSL laboratory examination which confirmed the voices of Mr Singh and his wife, sources in the state vigilance bureau said. Mr Singh ruled out stepping down. —PTI

After Buta Singh, this is the second important Minister in Manmohan Singh's government who is being charged with corruption. So much for a corruption free government as toted by the Congress.
It is too much to expect that he too will resign willingly, just as Buta singh declined.
Everyone is not like Omar Abdullah who resigned at the sightest whiff of corruption charges. I suppose he was so sure of his innocence that he could make the offer. The other two are not sure they would get back their seats if they resigned.
The allegations may be true.