The Himachal Pradesh government has taken stern action by removing three state officers from their posts: Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Onkar Sharma, Director General of Police (DGP) Atul Verma, and Superintendent of Police (SP) Shimla Sanjive Gandhi have been divested of their posts and sent on leave after their contradictory statements in the HP High Court on the status report in the death of HPPCL, Chief Engineer Viimal Negi’s death probe .
The Himachal Pradesh High Court has handed over the the probe in the death case to the CBI after taking cognizance of their conflicting status reports and even termed the acts of accusation of SP and DGP against each other as “acts of indiscipline”.
Sharma has been divested of responsibilities held by him and given these to ACS, KK Pant and departments of Home, Revenue and Jal Shakti to Sandeep Kadam and Tribal Development to Rakhil Kahlon.
This decision was taken in a meeting chaired by CM Sukhwinder Sukhu in the Secretariat on Tuesday evening, attended by Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena, Secretary to CM Rakesh Kanwar, Advocate General Anoop Rattan and Law Secretary.
DGP Atul Verma, retiring on May 30, has been sent on leave, and the state government has appointed ADGP Ashok Tewari as DGP, and SP Solan Gaurav Singh has been given additional charge of SP Shimla.
The decsion may spell trouble for Verma, who in his affidavit before the High Court had made the revelation of a missing pen drive, which, he had claimed, was not made part of the case record and had been formatted. A likely legal battle may further make it difficult for him to get his pension and other benefits.
