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Bribery charge: Virbhadra briefs Ambika, Singhvi
Tribune News Service

Virbhadra’s defence Himachal CM said Jaitley had withheld vital facts of the case He stated that the project had been allotted to the firm by Prem Kumar Dhumal-led BJP Government on June 14, 2002 Later, even when the firm defaulted, Dhumal didn’t cancel the project.

New Delhi, January 1
The Congress leadership today distanced itself from the issue involving alleged payoffs to Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh with party president Sonia Gandhi and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi both refraining from meeting him.

BJP’s Arun Jaitley has alleged that Singh and his wife Pratibha, Lok Sabha MP, were paid money as quid pro quo for the Himachal government’s decision to grant extension to hydroelectric power firm named Venture Energy and Technology for executing a 15 MW power project in Chamba. Virbhadra landed in Delhi yesterday to explain his stand but could meet only AICC general secretary in charge of Himachal Ambika Soni and top lawyer-cum-former Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi today. Singhvi, whom Jaitley has openly dared to a debate, may be asked in near future to defend the Congress.

Importantly, the Congress cancelled its official briefing today reportedly to avoid questions on the Himachal CM who is learnt to have told Ambika that the 15 MW project allotted to Venture Energy was cancelled on November 12 and, hence, there could be no quid pro quo as alleged by Jaitley.

Virbhadra defended himself saying Jaitley had withheld vital facts of the case. He submitted a dossier to Singhvi stating that the project (Sai Kothi Hydro Power Project, Chamba) had actually been allotted to the firm by Prem Kumar Dhumal-led BJP Government on June 14, 2002. Later even when the firm defaulted, Dhumal didn’t cancel the project.

Soon upon the allotment, the Congress government came to power in Himachal and decided against granting extension to the firm which defaulted. “The firm moved the state High Court but the HC also cancelled its project and gave it to HP Electricity Board,” Virbhadra argued in his evidence presented to Singhvi and Soni.

Thereafter, the firm moved the apex court which, on September 5, 2005, asked the Himachal government to reconsider its decision of cancelling the allotment. It was then that the state government on May 8, 2007 decided to re-allot the project to Venture Energy on the condition that it would withdraw all court cases and start operations by June 18, 2009.

The firm again defaulted, Virbhadra’s defence says adding that by then the BJP Government had come to power in Himachal and on July 27, 2010, Dhumal granted the firm an extension till March 31, 2011 subject to a penalty of Rs 10,000 per MW.

Virbhadra’s dossier accuses BJP of double-speak. “The firm’s penalty due to be paid to the state was Rs 25.52 lakh. Yet the project was not cancelled by the BJP government. Jaitley withheld this fact,” it states.

When the Congress returned to power in Himachal, the Cabinet on September 4 decided to grant 10-month extension to the firm if it paid Rs 58.19 lakh penalty within 30 days. “Since the firm defaulted again, the project was cancelled on November 12,” Virbhadra told Congress leaders claiming innocence.

The Congress has told Virbhadra to keep his defence ready as he did in the past whenever the BJP accused him of corruption.