BJP dares CM to go through CBI inquiry into contents of CD

Shimla, June 1 (UNI) The Himachal Pradesh unit of the BJP today dared Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and his MP wife to release an affidavit, rejecting the contents of the CD, and followed by a CBI inquiry.

''If the contents of the CD are fabricated and false, both Mr and Mrs Singh should come out with affidavits, saying that the contents are false, followed by a CBI inquiry,'' state party president Jai Ram Thakur and state vice president Rajiv Bindal said in a joint release here.

BJP has been demading removal of the Chief Minister and suspension of his wife Pratibha Singh, who is a Lok Sabha member from Mandi constituency.

Congress legislator from Shahpur constituency, Vijai Singh Mankotia, had on May 28 released a CD purportedly containing telephonic conversation between Mr and Mrs Singh and a third person, alleging that the three were talking about a ''business deal''.

Even former Chief Minister P K Dhumal has called upon Mr Singh to resign on moral grounds after the ''business deal'' has been made public by his own legislator.

They said both the Congress leaders should have quit from their present posts on moral grounds after the CD was released and returned to take their political posts only after an inquiry absolved them of corruption charges.

However, the Congress leaders neck deep in corruption were resorting to ''devious methods'' to mislead the people of the state by hoisting false cases on BJP leaders, the BJP alleged.

Besides, the state government should have got the CD examined by forensic laboratories either at Bangalore or Hyderabad to prove whether it was tempered with or not, they said.

Mr Thakur and Mr Bindal said people of the Hamirpur constituency would inflict a crushing defeat on the Congress in a sharp rebuttal to the corrupt politicians.

On one hand, the Congress leaders were rejecting the contents of the CD, on the other, they had approached the state High Court, demanding a complete ban on its playing, BJP said.

Accusing the Congress government of being despotic, the BJP leaders said it had registered an FIR against former union minister Shanta Kumar, former state Chief Minister P K Dhumal, state party president Jai Ram Thakur and former Congress leader Vijai Singh Mankotia at Bilaspur.

The BJP leaders said the CD has exposed the Congress leaders who were always accusing others of corruption.

UNI