State Anti-Corruption sleuths grill Thakur over HPCA issue

Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) president Anurag Thakur was grilled by the state Anti-Corruption Bureau officials today in connection with cases registered over the Association's affairs, an investigation officer said.
Thakur, who is president of the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and a Lok Sabha member from Hamirpur, today for the first-time appeared before the Anti-Corruption officers since cases were registered by it against the Association.
He, incidentally, had failed to appear before the Vigilance Bureau officials when earlier summoned on October 31 regarding the same matter.
Thakur was questioned over the conversion of HPCA, which was initially registered under the societies Act, into a company and the alleged land encroachment upon by the Association near the Dharamsala Cricket Stadium, Additional Superintendent of Police Jograj Jaryal said.

Official sources said the manner in which the HPCA got itself converted into a Company without the government's approval raised doubts about its functioning and intension.
Besides Thakur, HPCA officials Vishal Marwah (Secretary) and A S Negi (Treasurer) were also questioned by the Vigilance Bureau separately, Jaryal said, adding that if required Thakur would be summoned again.

The Vigilance Bureau in August had registered a cheating and misappropriation case against the Association's alleged irregularities in allotment of land, which was a village common land as per the revenue records, to the HPCA for constructing a residential complex for players near its international stadium in Dharamsala.

The land was allotted when the BJP government, headed by Thakur's father Prem Kumar Dhumal, was in power in the state.
The HPCA has been accused of encroaching upon 720 sqm of land belonging to the state Sports and Youth Services department and a case regarding this was registered last month.
Two IAS officers - Deepak Sanan and R S Gupta - were charge-sheeted by the state government in July for allegedly allowing the change in the land-use for building the HPCA residential complex.