Himachal CM's private secretary fails to turn up before ED
Shimla, April 22 (IANS) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh's principal private secretary Subhash Ahluwalia, charged with money laundering, did not turn up before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here on Wednesday for examination, an official said.
The ED has issued him notice under the Foreign Exchange Management Act.
In a communication to the directorate, Ahluwalia, a 1989 batch former Indian Administrative Service officer, sought a month's time to file his reply and to join the investigation.
A senior Enforcement Directorate official told IANS that his plea was accepted.
Ahluwalia, who is being accused of misusing state funds to acquire assets - movable and immovable - during his previous tenure as principal private secretary to Virbhadra Singh from 2003-07, has been asked for details about foreign remittances received by him from his children who are working in the US.
He was re-appointed as principal private secretary in 2013.
"The Enforcement Directorate has reopened the case just on an anonymous complaint. There is nothing new. I have already got a clean chit from the vigilance bureau and also from the income tax department," Ahluwalia told reporters here.
He said the case, which was more than a decade old, had already been settled by a court.
Vigilance officials pointed out that in 2008 more than Rs.13.4 million were deposited in 16 bank accounts held by Ahluwalia, his wife and their two children.
The department had also made an assessment of properties owned by him in Shimla, Panchkula in Haryana, Kansal near Chandigarh and Gurgaon.
His wife Meera, who is the principal of a girls' college in Shimla, is also accused of going on foreign jaunts at the expense of private companies while holding a government job.
The couple was arrested in October 2008 from Haryana's Panchkula town. At that time the BJP government was at the helm in Himachal Pradesh.