The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Thursday allowed the Patent Appeal (LPA) filed by the Superintendent of Police (SP) Sanjeev Gandhi to partially allow the death of the Central Bureau (CBI) to partly the death of HPPCL Chief Engineer Vimli Negi. An LPA is an appeal against the decision of a single judge for another bench of the same court.
A division bench of Chief Justice JS Sandhwalia and Justice Ranjan Sharma allowed the appeal to only to such an extent that it is related to the professional integrity of SP Gandhi and other members of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), stating that their professional standing should not be reduced. The bench clarified that it would not interfere with the main decision to transfer the investigation to the CBI, as it would ensure a proper and effective investigation.
The LPA filed by SP Gandhi in his personal capacity said that the order presented by the Director General of Police (DGP) Atul Verma and Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Onkar Sharma on 23 May by the single judge bench of Judicial Ajay Mohan Goyal had a lot of relying on the affidavits.
In the appeal, Gandhi argued that he was not provided with the status report submitted by ACS Sharma. He further claimed that the DGP’s status report, which the SIT investigation was called “suspect”, was presented without knowledge of the Advocate General’s office. Gandhi also said that he was not given enough time to present his case before a single bench, which had passed the order to transfer the investigation to the CBI.
Advocate Sanjeev Bhushan, who appeared on behalf of Gandhi, said, “Our LPA was partially accepted. This is a relief for us. We had expressed concern about the doubts being dubbed on SP Sanjeev Gandhi’s professional integrity. The bench accepted our prayers and issued notices to anxious respondents.”
In his petition, Gandhi prayed, “… LPA has been allowed to please and the decision implemented on 23 May has been amended to such an extent, instead, instead of handing over the investigation to the CBI, it should be handed over to a special investigation team constituted by the Hon’ble High Court of Himachal Pradesh, which is under the control of any central agency.”
The petition further stated, “It is also prayed that the affidavits filed by DGP (Atul Verma), which are being inspired by the earlier intentions, should be disregarded, and that the scattered observation about the investigation – said that the affidavit – the affidavit – may be different from polite.”
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On May 29, the state government led by Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu directed SP Gandhi, ACS Sharma and then DGP Verma to proceed on leave. Verma was later retired from the police service on 31 May. Gandhi is currently on medical leave.
In the LPA, Gandhi, who led the original sitting of Negi’s death, also mentioned that a ‘Kali Diary’ recovered during the investigation allegedly had references to ACS Sharma.
Gandhi filed a review petition in his personal capacity, in which HPPCL Additional Chief Secretary, DGP, CBI, India’s Union and Wimli Negi’s wife Kiran Negi named Replyers as respondents.
Meanwhile, the CBI has formally captured the investigation, lodged a fresh FIR at its Delhi headquarters. A four -member CBI Seet is currently in Shimla and has started recording the statements of persons, including family members of the deceased officer.
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The review petition stated, “LPA appeal is being filed in personal capacity, which suffer from findings and ideas based on the affidavits of the respondents, especially in the decision passed by the single judge bench.”
The petition further stated, “The applicant is suffering from the May 23 order, prefers the current appeal on many grounds-especially that his professional integrity has been tarnished. The findings against SIT-2 are incorrect, wrongly, based on facts, and severely hesitant.
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