Himachal HC upholds CBI investigation in Negi death case

The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Thursday declined to interfere with the earlier decision to transfer the investigation into the death of chief engineer Vimal Negi to the CBI. The order came on a petition filed by Sanjeev Gandhi, who headed the SIT as SO, Shimla.

Gandhi had challenged the Single Bench’s order transferring the inquiry to the CBI, but the court observed this plea was non-maintainable. However, it issued notices to the state government and Kiran Negi, the deceased’s wife, on a limited issue regarding the removal of certain observations made in the single judge’s order transferring the probe to the CBI.

Negi, a chief engineer at HP Power Corporation Ltd, went missing on March 10. His body was later found in Govindsagar, Bilaspur, on March 18. Suspecting bias in the SIT probe, his family had moved the court seeking a CBI investigation.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia and Justice Ranjan Sharma passed the order on Gandhi’s appeal against the single judge’s decision. Gandhi argued that certain remarks in the order referencing DGP and ACS (Home) status reports could harm his career as an IPS officer. The court will now hear his plea on this limited aspect.