BJP demands CBI inquiry into CD scam

Shimla, May 29 (UNI) The Himachal Pradesh unit of the BJP today demanded a CBI inquiry into the CD scam and said Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh should resign on moral grounds.

''The Congress has been dismissing charges of corruption against the State Government as frivolous and false. However, the same have now been levelled by a senior congress MLA and former cabinet minister Vijai Singh Mankotia against the Chief Minister and his MP wife Pratibha Singh,'' party's State General Secretary K R Balnatha said at a press conference here.

Mr Mankotia had yesterday released a CD purportedly containing the voice of the Chief Minister and Mrs Pratibha Singh which had allegedly indicated some ''business deal''.

He said the BJP demands a CBI inquiry into the recorded conversations and immediate resignation of the Chief Minister and Mrs Pratibha Singh till the investigation were completed.

The BJP leader played a copy of the CD before the media that Mr Mankotia had made public at Dharmshala yesterday.

Ms Pratibha Singh should be stopped from attending Parliament after the CD scam, he said.

Alleging that all developmental projects in industry and power sector, were being cleared by the Congress government involved kickbacks, he said no project was being cleared without receiving payments.

He said that corruption was being run in connivance with bureaucrats and technocrats considered close to the Chief Minister, adding that only a few days ago a suitcase full of cash went missing from the Chief Minister's Office.

UNI