India Blooms reported that Mr Virbhadra Singh senior Congress leader recently denied that he had received kickbacks during his tenure as Union Steel Minister, following a purported expose by a private TV news channel.

According to a report, the Income Tax Department had seized documents suggesting illicit payments to officials in the Steel Ministry and some State run firms when IT had raided the office of a steel company at Ashoka Hotel in December 2010.

Owned and run by Mr Pramod and Vinod Mittal brothers of steel tycoon and multi billionaire Mr Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, the company was Ispat Industries Limited.

According to documents with the channel, one of the intended beneficiaries listed in the records by the Income Tax investigations comes up as VBS someone who received four payments adding up to INR 2.8 crore from October 2009 to October 2010.

The alleged involvement of Mr Singh a former CM of Himachal Pradesh in the latest case of corruption has put the Congress in a spot, especially since he leads the party's charge in the poll bound state.

Source - India Blooms

(www.steelguru.com)