Shimla/New Delhi, Sep 26 (PTI): The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday registered a corruption case against Virbhadra Singh, the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, and raided his residence and ten other places in Shimla and Delhi.

The CBI’s raids came on a day when Singh’s daughter was getting married.

The searches started at 7.55am soon after Singh had left his residence in Shimla for the wedding function, sources in Shimla said.

The agency has been carrying out an inquiry against Singh and his family members for allegedly amassing wealth of Rs 6.1 crore, which is disproportionate to his known sources of income while he was serving as Union Minister of Steel.

Sources said the preliminary enquiry against Singh and others has been converted into a regular case under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

CBI sources said the preliminary inquiry was against Singh, his wife Pratibha Singh, son Vikramaditya Singh, daughter Aparajita Singh and an agent of the Life Insurance Corporation, Anand Chauhan.

The sources said it is alleged that he got an unexplained income of Rs 6.1 crore during the period 2009-11 when he was serving as the Minister of Steel in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.

They said it is alleged that Singh while serving as the Union minister invested Rs 6.1 crore in life insurance policies through LIC agent Chauhan.

The 18-member raiding team arrived at the Chief Minister's residence minutes after Singh and his family members left for the wedding ceremony of his daughter.

The Chief Minister and his family members were back at around 11am but did not speak to media persons waiting outside the residence.

The chief whip of Bharatiya Janata Party’s Legislature party, Suresh Bharadwaj, and party spokesman Ganesh Dutt demanded immediate resignation of Virbhadra Singh.

Apparently the Chief Minister and his ministers had some inkling about registration of the case him as the 11 cabinet ministers had issued a joint statement accusing the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre of using pressure tactics to destabilise the Congress government in the state.

The ministers said they feared ”misuse” of Central probe agencies to implicate Virbhadra Singh by making “false and fabricated cases” against him and noted the income tax cases against him were already sub-judice.

They said that the income tax matters related to Virbhadra Singh were already pending before Income Tax Appellate Authorities and courts and the CBI after going into a detail inquiry had already submitted its preliminary inquiry report to the Delhi High Court.