Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today blamed the political opponent of hatching conspiracy against him to destroy his public and political image. He blamed the Union Government of harassing and destablising the state government, and misusing central investigating agencies against political opponents.

Terming the Enforcement Directorate action of attaching a Delhi farmhouse, valued by the ED Rs 27.29 crore, a planned conspiracy to destroy his public image in the run up to the assembly polls. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh accused the Enforcement Department of concealing facts and giving out a “concocted” value of the assets to “sensationalize” the matter.

Singh, in his press statement, said while one expected the political opponents to distort facts to drive political mileage, it was a matter of grave concern that a responsible government agency was behaving in such a manner and spreading a canard against him.

He clarified that Delhi farmland, which was attached by the Enforcement Directorate, was purchased for only Rs 1.20 crore by the company M/s Mapple, promoted by his son Vikramaditya Singh. CM stated that he gave Rs 90 lakh to his son from his personal account through proper banking channels and the remaining amount was paid from his personal accrued moneys. His family took friendly loans amounting to Rs 5.90 crore from V Chandersekhar and the amount had been paid back in full with interest long time back and accounted for tax appropriately, he further added.

Virbhadra Singh has accused that an officer with RSS background, Vinod Sharma (Deputy Director of Income Tax, Faridabad ), was used without jurisdiction to create false, baseless and fictitious survey reports and dossiers under instructions from the IT Department, Chandigarh, with malafide intent to help create false cases using ED and CBI.

He said all this was a matter of record yet he and his family members were being harassed and persecuted using multiple central agencies since 2013.

Virbhadra Singh cautioned to take appropriate legal remedies to contest all persecution.

Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate has attached a Delhi farmhouse owned by Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh. It has alleged that the farmhouse was purchased with ill-gotten money routed through shell companies and the payment was made by a businessman who had won a hydro-electric contract from the Virbhadra-led government. The Enforcement Directorate has valued the farmhouse Rs 27.29 crore.