Ready for any probe, says Virbhadra Singh

Former Union minister Virbhadra Singh on Tuesday said he was ready to face a probe into allegations that he received payments from a private steel firm provided the role of others, including Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is also investigated.

"I am ready to face any inquiry pertaining to any ministry in Centre, but all those should be inquired who have name in it," said Singh in a party's rally at Dharamsala.

"My name is Virbhadra Singh and its initials are VS and not VBS as BJP says, but any way as I am ready, let Shiv Raj Chouhan and others be put under the inquiry," he said.

He said, "I have a clean 50 years of political career, though BJP kept me busy in several cases. But I always come out clear".

Singh said that in steel ministry he never dealt with the firm in question, it was dealt by his predecessors.

Even the differences between me and Vijay Singh Mankotia (of CD episode) is still on and the court cases are also going on, but I (Singh) brought Mankotia back into the party fold for the wellbeing and political welfare of Congress, he said.

Singh claimed that in the past four years the Dhumal lead Himachal Pradesh government failed to spend Rs 10.50 crore of the central aid and it lapsed.

Coming out in defence of Virbhadra Singh, Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) raked the Jain hawala diary case and cited the Delhi high court ruling that "the entries in the diaries maintained by Jain brothers were not admissible as legal evidence".

HPCC media incharge Mukesh Agnihotri questioned the "silence" of BJP leader Arun Jaitley on the alleged role of Madhya Pradesh chief minister's office.

"The IT raids were conducted by the department in 2010 and now two years later both BJP and Arun Jaitley are flogging a dead horse, raising an uncalled for din and processions to mislead voters to reap political dividend," he alleged.

Agnihotri alleged that by launching a smear campaign against Virbhadra, the BJP leadership was trying to divert the attention of the people away from corruption under BJP's rule in the state. He asked Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal to make public details of the wealth allegedly amassed by him and his family.

Meanwhile, state BJP president Sat Pal Singh Satti said that the conduct of HPCC president and former chief minister had made the state hang its head in shame.

Satti charged the prime minister and Union finance minister with shielding Virbhadra.

"Why did the UPA government not try to find who 'VBS' was, particularly when there was no other person other than Virbhadra in the Steel ministry with these initials," Satti asked.

"If Virbhadra thinks he is 'innocent', he should volunteer for a probe by Special Investigation Team (SIT) and assist in impartial enquiry," he said.