Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu today clarified that Himachal government will not go into any appeal against the High Court order wherein it handed over the investigation into the HPPCL (Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited) Chief Engineer Vimal Negi’s death case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
He lambasted opposition BJP for playing politics over the sensitive case and said the BJP was not seeking justice for Vimal Negi’s family, it was only doing politics on it. “It is just a media trial at the behest of BJP,” he said.
Talking to mediapersons here on Monday, the Chief Minister said, “We accept the HC order on CBI investigation as the government also wants that Vimal Negi’s family gets justice. We will fully cooperate with the CBI. We would have handed over the investigation to the CBI on our own had we known that the family wanted it. But I don’t agree with the statement that no officer from HP cadre will be involved in the CBI investigation.”
Sukhu, however, avoided any reference of the Superintendent of Police, Shimla Sanjeev Gandhi, who was heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) and had openly talked to media against the Director General of Police, Additional Chief Secretary, the DC, former DC and a constitutional authority after the Court order on CBI investigation into Vimal Negi’s death, and simply said, “The government will not tolerate any act of indiscipline by any officer.”
Explaining the sequence of events over the past two months since Negi’s mysterious death in March, 2025, he said the government had done every bit first to trace the missing Chief Engineer and when his body was retrieved from Bhakra dam, the government ordered inquiry and took action against the HPPCL officers, against whom Vimal Negi’s family leveled allegations.
He said Horticulture minister, Jagat Singh Negi, who is also from Kinnaur, talked to me in this regard after getting in touch with the family and we honoured the sentiments of the bereaved family.
He said the government ordered an administrative inquiry into the issue by Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Onkar Sharma, registered an FIR, and constituted a Special Investigation Team also. He referred to the medical issues specially anxiety medication by Vimal Negi and said all angles were being probed.
The Chief Minister admitted the tiff within the Police force when the whole issue came up before the court on petition by Vimal Negi’s family. He said the DGP had come to him when he was to submit the affidavit in the court and had suggested that we should change the SIT into Vimal Negi’s case.
“I refused as I know the BJP is playing politics on it. I even said that we should hand over the case to the CBI on our own. I told him that I want justice for the family and I would not spare anyone who is found guilty in it,” he said.
The DGP submitted his affidavit in the court, and the Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Onkar Sharma, also submitted his report in the court, without the knowledge of the AG. He said the SIT submitted its own report. “The ACS had submitted his report to me some days ago and I had asked him through a noting that whether he has given the chance to those people, against whom allegations have been leveled, to explain. We sought the legal opinion from the
Advocate General and he said that we should give them an opportunity to explain. However, the ACS said he has submitted his inquiry report and a special team could be constituted which can do this part,” the CM said, holding that the persons should have been given the opportunity to explain.
Sukhu said in the ACS inquiry report, one person, Vipin Guleria, who was heading the 32 MW Pekhuwala solar power project, had leveled allegations against the Managing Director and one Director, despite the fact that the same person had made payments of Rs 170 crore for the project execution. He referred to the pen drive recovered from the body of Vimal Negi and sent to the Forensic lab. He said in this era of technology, any data can be retrieved from the pen drive even after it was deleted.
The Chief Minister said the BJP would not be able to mislead public on this as the government has already clarified the things that transpired in Pekhuwala solar power project through documents in the winter session of the Vidhan Sabha. He said it does not behove Harsh Mahajan, who won Rajya Sabha election by allegedly resorting to all sorts of measures, to speak on corruption in the government. “The people brought us back to the figure of 40 in Vidhan Sabha, even after this,” he said.
It is pertinent to mention that SP, Shimla, who was heading the SIT, had refused to give the investigation record to the CBI on Sunday even after court order, holding that the SIT would challenge the court order.
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