Shimla: Himachal PRadesh new CM Virbhadra Singh and his wife Pratibha Singh have been cleared of all charges in a Corruuption Case just before Swearing-in because of lack of  Evidence against them.
Special Judge B.L. Soni, while pronouncing the 21-page order, in a jam-packed court said that the “the prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt”.
“There is no evidence of exercising personal influence by Pratibha Singh on Virbhadra Singh for getting cleared matters related toMohan Meakin Ltd. (brewery in Solan town) and Gujarat Ambuja Ltd.”
Soni said there was also no evidence of any misconduct on the part of Virbhadra Singh.
Defence counsel Shrawan Dogra told reporters that not even a single witness out of 39 examined supported the prosecution evidence.
The prosecution had filed the charge sheet against the couple in October 2010.
Virbhadra Singh and Pratibha Singh were booked by the state police Aug 3, 2009, under the Prevention of Corruption Act for alleged misuse of official position and criminal misconduct when he was the chief minister in 1989.
Virbhadra and his wife were booked in 2009 on the basis of a controversial audio CD which allegedly contained recordings of a conversation between him, his wife, and a bureaucrat about an illegal financial transaction. Virbhadra had to resign as Union minister after charges were framed against him in June this year – three years after the case was registered.
Public prosecutor Jiwan Lal, heading the prosecution team, resigned on December 20 – the day the assembly election results were declared. Earlier, two key prosecution witnesses, Kapil Mohan, owner of Mohan Meakin Breweries, and PC Jain, a retired manager with Gujarat Ambuja, had denied that any illegal money was transacted for obtaining clearance to their industrial projects in 1989-90.
The cassette allegedly contained Virbhadra Singh’s telephonic conversation with Indian Administrative Service officer Mohinder Lal, who is now dead.
It also contained voices of his wife and some industrialists, who have been identified by police, proposing to invest in the state.