CHANDIGARH: In a setback to the Congress-led Himachal Pradesh government, the State High Court on Friday handed over the probe into the mysterious death of Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited chief engineer Vimal Negi to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). His body was found in Gobind Sagar Lake on March 18.
A single bench of the High Court, led by Justice Ajay Goyal, on Wednesday accepted a petition by Vimal Negi’s wife, Kiran Negi, and ordered the transfer of the probe from the Himachal Police SIT, headed by Shimla SP Sanjeev Gandhi, to the CBI.
R K Bawa, the advocate for the petitioner, said the court accepted the family's plea that the state police was not conducting a fair investigation and directed that no Himachal Pradesh officer be involved in the probe.
"From day 1, Kiran was not satisfied with the probe by the SIT. Accepting our plea, the court has directed that no Himachal-cadre officer will be part of the CBI investigation. The government failed to act on the report of the additional chief secretary (Home and Revenue), Onkar Chand, in which he indicted officers accused by the family of misbehaviour. The government withheld his report. The SIT was biased and only looked into the medical history of the victim," the counsel stated.
Himachal Pradesh advocate general Anup Rattan, said the government is not averse to investigation by any agency. "The probe being carried out by our state police officials was fair and transparent. Our goal is justice. We won’t be filing an appeal against the order,’’ he said.
The SIT was constituted after the case of abetment to suicide was registered on March 22 in Shimla on Kiran Negi’s complaint that top HPPCL officials, including director (electrical) Desh Raj, had been harassing her husband.
Sources said that the Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Revenue) Onkar Sharma, had submitted a 66-page fact-finding inquiry report to the government on April 8, 2025, as he had been entrusted the inquiry. He even declined to review this report on the request of Secretary (Power) to include the rebuttal of the three officers, who faced allegations.
It is learnt that the conflicting affidavits submitted by the Director General of Police Atul Verma and Superintendent of Police Shimla, had also put a question mark on a fair inquiry by the SIT constituted in this regard.