ASI sent to 10-day judicial custody in Vimal Negi Case

A CBI court today sent Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Pankaj Sharma to judicial custody for 10 days. A CBI team had arrested Sharma from Ghumarwin in Bilaspur district on September 14 for allegedly tampering with crucial evidence in the mysterious death case of Vimal Negi, a former Chief Engineer of Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (HPPCL), which the CBI is investigating. He would now remain in judicial custody till September 26.

Sharma was today presented in court and the CBI sought his remand for custodial interrogation but he was sent to judicial custody. During the hearing, the court also rejected Sharma's bail plea that his advocate had moved stating that CBI, during a recent hearing in the High Court of Himachal, had said that his client was not required in the case. The next hearing in the case was fixed for September 26 and would be held via video conferencing.

Sharma, who was sent to police custody for one day on Monday, was accused of hiding and tempering with crucial evidence in the case; a pen drive that he found from the pocket of clothes on Vimal Negi’s body. Though not part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to find Negi, Sharma had visited the site the day when Negi’s body was found and had taken the possession of the pen drive, which he later had allegedly formatted.

Interestingly, a local fisherman had recorded Sharma's conversation regarding the pen drive with some person on the phone. Sharma was later suspended from office on May 19, just four days before the case was handed over to CBI.

The CBI during investigation had questioned Sharma several times. He was kept under police security and CCTV camera surveillance at the Police Lines at Kaithu in Shimla. He was later allowed to shift to his government residence in Shimla on the directions of the High Court on September 5.