BJP to challenge prosecution sanction against Dhumal in court

Opposition BJP today said it would challenge in court Governor Urmila Singh's decision to grant sanction to prosecute former Chief Minister P K Dhumal in a case related to the Himachal Pradesh Cricket association.
"The government is wreaking political vendetta and the Governor did not apply her mind while giving sanction for prosecution... The vital fact that the decision (to grant approvals for allotment of lands to HPCA) was taken by the cabinet and not individually by Dhumal has been ignored while taking the hasty decision," BJP spokesman Ganesh Dutt said.
"The BJP will challenge the grant of prosecution sanction in the court of law... We will fight it out both politically and legally... The deliberate attempt to malign the senior BJP leader ahead of Lok Sabha polls would boomerang on the ruling Congress," Dutt said.

He accused the Governor of becoming a party to the state government's move to carry out vendetta against BJP leaders.
He alleged that Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had made up his mind to target Dhumal and his MP son Anurag Thakur, who is also the HPCA president, immediately after the Congress came into power in the state in December 2012.
The BJP alleged that the entire exercise was aimed at diverting the people's attention from the ongoing probe into cases of corruptions against the Chief Minister.

"The Delhi High Court had yesterday grilled CBI for not carrying out investigation against Virbhadra expeditiously and listed the case for April 30... Sensing that he may not be able to wriggle out of the charges and that any adverse comment by the court might have serious political fallout, the CM has chosen to rake up this issue," Dutt said.

The Governor had yesterday granted sanction to prosecute former Chief Minister Dhumal in the HPCA case. Sources in the state's Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau said the charge-sheet in the case would be filed in court soon.
Dhumal has been accused of misusing his office as Chief Minister to grant approvals for allotment of lands to HPCA.
Prominent among the 18 persons named in the charge-sheet are Dhumal, Anurag, Additional Chief Secretary Deepak Shanan, IAS officer Ajay Sharma (currently posted as DC, Bilaspur) and then Kangra deputy commissioner R S Gupta.