The State government on Saturday sought sanction from the Governor for prosecution of the former Chief Minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal; Additional Chief Secretary Deepak Sanan; MP Anurag Thakur and some other State officials in the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association case.
The State Vigilance Bureau had lodged an FIR on wrongful allotment of land to the HPCA during the previous Bharatiya Janata Party regime.
The HPCA, in its turn, has complained to the Election Commission that a senior State Vigilance officer and some retired bureaucrats who have been re-employed by the Virbhadra Singh government are violating the model code of conduct by seeking to expedite the charge sheet and seeking sanction for prosecution with a view to settling political scores.
HPCA spokesman Sanjay Sharma said the vigilance officer concerned was himself under the CBI scanner in the Virbhadra Singh case. In that case, Mr. Singh was questioned on money laundering charges when he was Union Steel Minister.
Now that the CBI was closing in on the Chief Minister, the HPCA alleged, the officials were trying to divert people’s attention and demanding sanction for prosecution of the BJP leaders who had brought Himachal into the international limelight by constructing the Dharamsala cricket stadium.
Mr. Thakur, Hamirpur MP, who is seeking re-election, says he would take the issue to the people’s court during his campaign with the support of cricket lovers and sportspersons all over the hill State.
