NEW DELHI (TIP): A day  after it filed an FIR against former Union Textiles Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela, the CBI June 18 registered a preliminary enquiry (PE) against former Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh and his family members to probe his “unexplained income of Rs 6.1 crore.”

The CBI’s PE has been registered against Singh — who is presently the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, his wife Pratibha, son Vikramaditya, daughter Aparajita, LIC agent Anand Chauhan and others.

According to a CBI source, “The PE has been registered against Singh and the others to enquire, from a disproportionate assets perspective, into his unexplained income of approximately Rs 6.1 crore amassed during the period 2009 to 2011, during which he was the Union Steel Minister.”“It was alleged that Virbhadra Singh, while serving as the Steel Minister, had invested his ill-gotten income through LIC agent Anand Chauhan by obtaining LIC policies in his name, and in the names of wife, son and daughter, showing the same as agricultural income,” the source said.

Sources also claimed that in 2012, Singh filed revised Income Tax Returns (ITRs) for assessment years 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12, revising his income from Rs 7.35 lakh to Rs 2.21 crore, Rs 15 lakh to Rs 2.8 crore and Rs 25 lakh to Rs 1.55 crore respectively in the revised ITRs. But Singh was quick to term the CBI action as “BJP’s vendetta politics” “It is merely a witch-hunting by the NDA government at the behest of former Himachal CM Prem Kumar Dhumal. I have already submitted Income Tax details to authorities concerned,” Singh said. But sources said the revised income that Singh has shown to be from agricultural sources, is disproportionate to the income that could have been generated from his agricultural assets.