Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh becomes the 1st serving CM to be raided by CBI Saturday Sep 26,2015

 CBI had informed the Delhi high court last year itself that a disproportionate assets probe against Singh was in the offing as there was prime facie evidence of irregularities. The agency had registered a preliminary enquiry in the matter and Singh was examined in Delhi by CBI officials last year.  The probe, initiated in October 2013, found Singh had amassed illegal assets worth Rs 6.03 crore when he was Union steel minister from 2009 to 2012, as also reflected in his income tax returns and bank documents. As many as 18 CBI officers reached Shimla early on Saturday morning and remained inside Virbhadra's private residence - Holly Lodge - throughout the day. The investigation teams also conducted simultaneous raids at his residences in Rampur and Saharan   On Saturday, CBI conducted searches at 13 locations in Shimla, Solan and New Delhi. Officials claimed they had recovered incriminating documents, property and investment papers, hard disks and pen drives.  CBI called state chief secretary P Mitra and DGP Sanjay Kumar before starting the raid. As news spread, other senior officials and cabinet ministers, chief parliamentary secretaries, chairmen and vice-chairmen of different boards and corporations rushed to Holly Lodge.

Simultaneously, CBI teams landed up at the 81-year-old Singh's official residence at Jantar Mantar in Delhi and a farm house in Mehrauli in south Delhi which is in the name of his son Vikramaditya.   Virbhadra Singh had filed IT returns for assessment years 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 showing agricultural income of Rs 735,000, Rs 1,500,000 and Rs 2,500,000 respectively. In 2012, in order to explain the unaccounted money, Singh filed revised IT returns for assessment years 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12.

The agency, in its preliminary enquiry had said that the documents showed revised agricultural income, showing an 18 to 30-fold increase in income in the three years which was Rs 2.21 crore, Rs 2.8 crore and Rs 1.55 crore respectively (total Rs 6.10 crore).

"The said income (Rs 6.10 crore) of the revised ITR was allegedly earned through agricultural income at Srikhand Apple Orchards in Rampur, Shimla.