Timing of charges against Virbhadra questionable: Congress

New Delhi: Congress came out in strong defence of Himachal state unit chief Virbhadra Singh, who is facing graft allegations, saying they were “far more political than in substance” and were intended to affect the assembly poll campaign. “The timing of the whole revelation is questionable. I am very suspicious about the timing. When he is busy campaigning, to bind him (with such allegations) in the middle of the campaign shows it is far more political than in substance,” party spokesperson Sandeep Dikshit told reporters. Referring to the Jain Hawala case, Dikshit said that the Jain diaries showed that notings cannot be construed as direct evidence of complicity. He was replying to a a host of questions on the issue reported in the media as “VBS” scandal as well as BJP’s attack on the former Himachal Pradesh chief minister accusing him of tax evasion and forgery. To a question about divergence in the IT return and the revised IT return filed by Virbhadra Singh, Dikshit said that a person declaring his income in IT return is itself a proof that there is no intention to hide anything. [caption id=“attachment_501402” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Virbhadra Singh in this file photo. AFP[/caption] “If a person has filed an IT return and declared his income. It shows the intent. If you want to hide something, you won’t do it. If you declare your income be it in revised IT declaration, it means you do not have anything to hide even if there is a jump in the income,” Dikshit said. Virbhadra Singh has also dismissed the allegations of income tax evasion, money-laundering and forgery as “false and fabricated” and threatened action against those behind the “malicious” campaign ahead of Himachal assembly polls. BJP leader Arun Jaitley alleged that Singh had altered his income tax account books from 2008 onwards to show a forged, back-dated contract and a highly inflated income of around Rs 6.5 Crore. “This is a case of bribery, conversion of bribe money through money-laundering into real income, forgery by back-dating an agreement,” Jaitley said, maintaining that this was not just a case of tax evasion. PTI