Shimla: Lashing out against the state government for framing him in a cooked up case, former director general of police ID Bhandari did not mince words alleging that Himachal was saddled with the most corrupt government where the top bureaucrat and a top advisor, against whom corruption cases were registered, were calling the shots.
Talking to reporters at the press club yesterday evening, Bhandari, who only retired on April 30, categorically stated that despite all efforts, the investigating agencies had failed to name any officer or police personnel in the FIR about the much hyped phone tapping case.
“The truth is,” he said, “no phone was ever intercepted illegally or unlawfully. Even after more than a year of investigation, why has no one been named in the FIR and why even one phone number of illegal interception has not been made public till date,” he retorted?
Explaining the due procedure under which investigating agencies intercepted phone calls, the former DGP who was charge sheeted on the last day before superannuation in a bugging case said that all efforts are being made to silence an upright police officer who knows much about the corrupt deeds of some of the most powerful people in Himachal.
Bhandari said that an advisor to chief minister Virbhadra Singh has made crores of rupees. “He was even arrested, investigations completed in the corruption case registered against him but remains a free man because of a technical reason as the central government did not give prosecution sanction in the case, said Bhandari.
The former police officer also alleged that the top bureaucrat in the state, when serving as principal secretary revenue, was allegedly involved in a Rs 10 lakh bribery case for allegedly according sanction of section 118 of the Land Reforms and Tenancy 1972 Act. Under the section any non-Himachali wanting to buy land in the state has to get an approval for the state cabinet.
“FIR no 7/2011 dated 21.3.2011 was registered in the matter but the case has been on the backburner since the Virbhadra Singh led government took over,” said Bhandari
“Fearing that I know too much, these senior officers have connived and are using some policemen to cow me down,” he said. “But I’m determined to take the issue to its logical end and will not rest till the truth is established,” he added.
He said the bugging case made out against him was without any material evidence. The case pertains to allegations that the room of Virbhadra Singh at a time when he was the union steel minister at Himachal Bhawan in Chandigarh was bugged by CID Shimla. Then Bhandari was heading the state CID department.
Bhandari said that he had been handed a charge sheet in the case for having allegedly issued innocuous verbal instructions that has no documentary basis but the inquiry conducted has neither questioned nor made Chandigarh or Punjab police as a witnesses to the case for primarily it was their responsibility to sanitize the room at which a union minister was staying.
He added that even the manager of the property had not been questioned or made a party to the case as to how and why he connived with the police to allow a room where a union minister was to stay to be bugged.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads the team of media professionals at Hill Post.
In a career spanning over two decades through all formats of journalism in Electronic, Print and Online Media, he brings with him enough experience to steer this platform. He lives in Shimla.
