Mandi drowning tragedy, temple theft kept govt officials on their toes

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 21

Temple thefts, high profile vigilance cases and fatal accidents dominated Himachal during 2014 which saw marginal increase in crime graph.

Governor Urmila Singh granted prosecution sanction against former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) filed charge-sheet in the court against him, his son Anurag Thakur, an MP, and 16 others in Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) case regarding conversion of the association from a society to a company.

The bureau also sought prosecution sanction against senior IAS officers — Additional Chief Secretaries Deepak Shanan and P C Dhima — and former Bilaspur DC Ajay Sharma in the cases related to the HPCA. However, the government withdrew the charges against the then Kangra DC RS Gupta, who has since retired.

Charge-sheets were also filed in Pavilion Hotel and tree felling cases. State Vigilance Bureau also filed another FIR against former CM P K Dhumal, former Additional Chief Secretary PC Kapoor and retired IPS officer AN Sharma for alleged violation of service rules.

Politicians in the soup

A case was registered against former BJP MLA Baldev Sharma in sexual assault case while BJP Lok Sabha member from Shimla Varinder Kashyap was booked in ‘Cash on camera’ scam on the directions of the high court. Congress MLA from Doon, Ram Kumar, was acquitted in Jyoti murder case by a Panchkula court. FIRs were registered in illicit tree felling cases in Shimla, Chamba and Nalagarh.

Temple theft

A major theft at Lord Raghunathji temple in Kullu, in which ancient idols of Lord Raghunathji, Lord Hanuman and silver idol of Lord Ganesh along with other valuables were stolen, rocked the state. Interpol was alerted to nab the culprits. A reward of Rs 10 lakh was announced for providing clue about the culprits.

The incident sent shock waves in the Kullu valley as Lord Raghunathji is the presiding deity of 300-odd local deities of Kullu valley and the famous Kullu Dasehra rituals revolve around him.

Summer Beas tragedy

The drowning of 24 B.Tech students of VNR Vigyan Jyoti Institute of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad, and a co-tour leader in Beas near Thalot in Mandi district in summer due to sudden release of water from Larji Dam sent tremors across the country. A massive rescue operation was launched which continued for about two months to recover the bodies of the victims. The high court also took suo moto notice in the matter and treated it as a PIL.

Murder, rape cases up

A total of 15,468 cases (12,722 under IPC and 2,746 under local and special laws) were registered in the first 11 months of 2014 as compared to15,733 cases registered in 2013. Kangra accounting for the maximum number of 2,943 cases, followedby Mandi (230) andShimla (1,832).

There was a marginal increase in murder and rape cases. As many as 116 murder cases were registered in 11 months as compared to 104 cases registered last year.