In a relief for Himachal Pradesh Congress Chief Virbhadra Singh as a trial court refused to cancel the bail granted to him in a 23-year-old corruption case. Rejecting the prosecution’s plea to cancel his bail, the order of Special Judge B.L. Soni at the district courts here has come as a shot in the arm for Virbhadra Singh, who is claiming that he will come out clean.
Special Public Prosecutor Jiwan Lal Sharma had pleaded for cancelling the former chief minister’s bail on the ground that the investigating agency has sufficient incriminating material that he has been influencing witnesses. However, the defence argued that the prosecution evidence lacked legal standing and it was deliberately delaying the proceedings. Even, the defences asked the court to examine those witnesses first who the prosecution said were being pressurised.
The case against the senior Congress leader and his wife was registered in 2009 for alleged misuse of official position and criminal misconduct when he was the chief minister in 1989. Aftermath Virbhadra Singh had to resign from the post of the union minister for micro, small and medium enterprises the day after charges were framed against him and his wife Pratibha Singh.
As Himachal Pradesh is going to poll in coming months and Court decision in favor of Virbhadra Singh came as a boost to the Congress campaign. He is a tallest leader in Himachal Congress and considered as a biggest mass leader in state. Because of his popularity and mass following, Congress high-command was forced to name him as a state party chief.
