Virbhadra Singh acquitted in corruption case
5 Dariya News Service (Vijyender Sharma)
Shimla 24-Dec-2012
A day before he is to take oath as the chief minister of Himachal Pardesh for the record sixth time, Virbhadra Singh has been acquitted by the court of special judge B L Soni in Shimla on Monday in a corruption case slapped against him and his wife Partibha Singh by the vigilance department. Since the very beginning, Virbhadra Singh has maintained that the case against him was concocted and politically motivated. Virbhadra Singh is going to take oath as the chief minister of the state at historic Ridge maidan on Tuesday morning. After the prosecution had filed a chargesheet before the trial court in October 2010, the special judge had framed charges in the case on June 25, 2012.Prosecution had claimed that recordings on the cassette are allegedly said to contain phone conversations of Virbhadra and his wife, talking to deceased bureaucrat Mohinder Singh, about illegal money dealing with some industrialists during the late 1989 and early 1990 period. After having completed the investigation in the case, the prosecution filed the chargesheet before the trial court in October, 2010. Framing of charges against him in the CD case had forced Virbhadra Singh to resign from Union ministry. But now he has been acquitted of all the charges by the court. Virbhadra Singh, alongwith his supporters, was present in the court when the judgment was delivered.The case was weakened after two high profile prosecution witnesses on November 17 had denied in the court that they had made any testimony before the investigation agency about having bribed their way to obtain clearances for industrial projects. Before the court of special judge BL Soni, retired octogenarian prosecution witness Kapil Mohan, owner of the Mohan Meakin business, had denied that any illegal money was paid to avert installation of an effluent treatment plant at the Solan brewery.During the same hearing, even the prime witness Major Vijay Singh Mankotia too had partially turned hostile when he caused doubts to arise about authenticity of the voice in two decade old recorded telephone conversation. Mankotia had said that he was of the opinion that the voice in a recorded conversation was that of Virbhadra Singh and his wife Pratibha Singh who are heard to be talking to deceased bureaucrat Mohinder Lal.Earlier, Mankotia was categorical that it was the voice of the former chief minister.