The Hindu : Front Page : FIR registered against Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh, wife in corruption case

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FIR registered against Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh, wife in corruption case

“Misuse of official position, criminal misconduct”
“Political vendetta by BJP regime”

Shimla/New Delhi: Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh and his wife Pratibha 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, said D.S. Manhas, Director-General of the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, on Tuesday. 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 party through false and baseless accusations and unscrupulous vilification,” Mr. Virbhadra Singh said in New Delhi.

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 the former State 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 Vigilance Bureau said. — PTI

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