Himachal govt denounces allegations of former DGP as baseless

The Himachal Pradesh Government today denounced former state police chief I D Bhandari's allegations against some bureaucrats and police officers as "wild, false, baseless and unfounded", and said these are outbursts of a frustrated officer harbouring political ambitions.
"The government as per its election promise initiated probe into the illegal phone-tapping, along with other cases of corruption and malpractices during the previous government, soon after assuming office, and feeling the heat of the probe, Bhandari is making baseless and unfounded allegations at the behest of his political mentors," an official said in a statement.
"The investigation into the phone-tapping case is at its final stage and charge sheet will be filed in the court soon," the spokesman said.

He said there was widespread public concern regarding illegal phone-tapping during the erstwhile BJP regime and accordingly action was taken by the present government.
He said the records were taken into possession by the government to ensure that those were not destroyed after the change of guard in the state.
The spokesman said it was unfortunate that a senior officer after retirement was critical of the action of the government of which he was a part till a few days ago. Bhandari's public outburst is uncalled for and an indication towards his political alliance with the BJP, he said.

"Bhandari is speaking the language of BJP and no body is surprised with his outbursts as soon after retirement he had made his political ambitions clear," the spokesman said.

He said it was unbecoming on the part of a former DGP to question the integrity of the acting chief secretary.
The issue was investigated by the previous BJP government in 2011 and nothing incriminating was found. "Now by raking up the same old issue, Bhandari was trying to blow the trumpet of BJP leaders," he said.
The spokesman said as regarding the allegation levelled by Bhandari against the Principal Private Secretary of the Chief Minister, the case was framed during the BJP tenure and it was on record that after investigations and examination of the evidence the case was sent to the Centre for prosecution.

The central government, however, gave clean chit to the officer by denying approval for prosecution.