March,31,2017:
CBI had filed a chargesheet against nine people, including the Chief Minister.
On Friday, Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh & his wife were charged by the Central Bureau of Investigation in a special court in a Disproportionate Assets(DA) Case.
This was done just hours after the Delhi High Court denied him any sort of relief & removed the interim stay on his arrest or interrogation.
The charge-sheet was filed against 9 people, including the 82 years old Congress leader, before special judge Virender Kumar Goyal for alleged offences punishable under the Section 109 (abetment) of the Indian Penal Code & the Prevention of Corruption Act,1988.
This development came a few hours after Delhi High Court dismissed the HP's chief minister & his wife's plea seeking quashing of DA case filed against them by CBI.
Justice Vipin Sanghi also vacated the Himachal Pradesh HC's interim order of 1st October 2015 which restrained the CBI from interrogating, arresting or filing a chargesheet in this case without the court's permission.
Virbhadra Singh has sought directions from the HC to quash the FIR registered against him & his wife under the Sections 13(2) & 13(1)(e) of Prevention of Corruption Act & Section 109 of the IPC by the CBI on 23rd September , 2015.
Virbhadra & his wife Pratibha Singh have claimed in their plea that there wasn't any order, direction or judgment by any court that had authorized the CBI to investigate, inquire or register regular cases & exercise jurisdiction in the territory of Himachal Pradesh.
This matter was transferred by the Apex Court to the Delhi High Court, which on 6th April 2016 asked CBI not to arrest Singh & had directed him to join the probe.
On 5th November last year, the Supreme Court had transferred Singh's plea from Himachal Pradesh High Court to Delhi High Court, saying it wasn't expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, but simply transferring the petition "in interest of justice & to save the institution (judiciary) from any embarrassment".
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