At a time when Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is facing a CBI inquiry in a disproportionate assets case, the Congress on Sunday raked up the issue of alleged misuse of office by his predecessor from the BJP, P.K. Dhumal, and his son Anurag Thakur, MP, to acquire land for a cricket stadium in Dharamshala and convert the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) into a company from a registered society to avoid scrutiny.
Reacting to the charges, Union Minister of State for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman accused the Congress of raking up a non-issue. She said the Congress had been trying to make the allegations an election issue since 2003. She added that Congress leaders had taken the matter to court 11 years ago but the case had continued to drag because they had been delaying it. “Anand Sharma and Motilal Vora haven’t even appeared in court. Fight it out in the court if it’s there,” she said.
Earlier, briefing presspersons, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the Dhumal Cabinet had approved grant of 16 acres to the HPCA — of which his son is a life member — on a lease for 99 years at a token rate of Re. 1 a month in May 2002. At that time, the Congress said, lease of land was governed by the Himachal Pradesh Lease Rules, which put the rate of the land at Rs. 94 lakh annually.
Further, the Congress said the land was granted even before the HPCA had put in a formal application, which was made a fortnight later in June 2002. Another violation flagged by the Congress pertained to the commercial use of this land against the provisions in the lease agreement. This began in 2007 when Mr. Dhumal returned to power after sitting in the Opposition from 2003.
In between, in July 2005, Mr. Thakur, as per documents provided by the Congress, registered a Section 25 company in Kanpur under the name and style of Himalayan Players Cricket Association (again HPCA) with the same office-bearers as that of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association.
Subsequently, Mr. Ramesh said, the Himalayan Players Cricket Association reverted to being the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association. As proof of this change in status from a registered society to a Section 25 company, the Congress produced a November 2012 letter from the HPCA to the Registrar of Societies, Shimla, intimating the public authority of the change.
