CLEAN PASSAGE: “Corruption free” Vir Bhadra to take oath of HP CM

Dhramshala, December 24, 2012: Just a day before he is to take oath as the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, 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 Pratibha Singh by the vigilance department.

These charges earlier forced the 78 year Congress leader to quit his cabinet seat in the central 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.

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 charge sheet 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 charge sheet before the trial court in October, 2010.

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.