Shimla, January 16
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, under attack from the BJP on charges of corruption, on Thursday filed criminal defamation cases against senior BJP leaders Arun Jaitley, ex-CM PK Dhumal and his sons, accusing them of unleashing a slanderous campaign against him and his family.

The Congress leader said he had filed a defamation case under Section 499 of the IPC against Jaitley, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, former state chief minister PK Dhumal and two separate petitions against BJP MP Anurag Thakur and Arun Dhumal, both sons of PK Dhumal, in the court of Shimla Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Jyotsana Dhadwal.

The CJM fixed the hearing on February 15.

Flanked by ministerial colleagues, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS) and legislators at his official residence Oak Over, Virbhadra said he would not be cowed down by such malicious, false and frivolous allegations. He dared the BJP leaders to file a complaint against him with the Lokayukta. They will not do so as they will have to furnish an affidavit along with the allegations, he said.

Virbhadra, in his first formal interaction with the media after Arun Jaitley levelled serious corruption allegations against him on December 30, however, declined to take questions from the media and confined himself to reading out from a written statement. “I have been facing a media trial without anyone bothering to take my view point, so I have been compelled to file a defamation case,” he said.

“If they think they can finish me with their flimsy and filthy accusations, they are living in a fancy world. I am not going to be cowed down by their threats as I firmly believe in the rule of law and truth and justice will prevail,” he said. He said he was targeted by Dhumal in both his tenures.