Himachal governor refuses prosecution sanction against Dhumal

Himachal Pradesh Governor Urmila Singh has refused to grant sanction to prosecute BJP leader and two-time chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal over "misuse of power" during his stint, an official said Tuesday.

The governor, whose term concludes Jan 24, has advised the government that there was no need for her intervention to grant prosecution sanction against Dhumal, a government official told IANS.

The governor has clarified that the government could proceed on its own, the official said while requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The state vigilance and anti-corruption bureau had last June registered a case against Dhumal for alleged misuse of position when he held office in 2007.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader was booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act for favouring Indian Police Service officer A.N. Sharma, who is now retired.

Sharma, who is also named in the first information report (FIR), had applied for voluntary retirement from the police service to contest the 2007 assembly elections on the BJP ticket. But he did not get the ticket from the BJP.

At that time, the Congress led by Virbhadra Singh was in power in the state.

In that 2007 assembly elections, the BJP returned to power. The BJP allowed Sharma to withdraw his resignation to rejoin the service. The BJP government led by Dhumal promoted Sharma to the rank of inspector general of police.

The FIR was registered under different sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the official said, adding that then principal secretary (home) P.C. Kapoor was also named in the case.

Earlier, the vigilance and anti-corruption bureau had charged Dhumal and his son Anurag Thakur, who is a Lok Sabha member from Hamirpur, in a trial court in Dharamsala with alleged wrongdoing in allotment of the land to the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA).

Thakur is the president of the HPCA.

Interestingly in the HPCA case, Governor Urmila Singh had granted sanction to prosecute Dhumal.