SC to hear plea of senior IPS officer against removal as Himachal DGP

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear on Wednesday the petition filed by senior IPS officer Sanjay Kundu challenging his removal as the Himachal Pradesh Director General of Police following a high court order over allegations that he tried to pressure a businessman who claimed he received threat to his life from his partners A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra on Tuesday took note of the submissions of senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for Kundu and agreed to hear the pleaRohatgi said the matter was extraordinary as the high court did not hear Kundu before directing the state government on December 26 to shift himThe top court initially said it will hear the plea during the day itself However it later took note of Rohatgis submissions and posted the plea for consideration on WednesdayFollowing the high court direction an order transferring Kundu was issued by the Himachal Pradesh governor on Tuesday He has been transferred to the states Ayush department as principal secretaryThe Himachal Pradesh High Court had on December 26 directed the state government to shift the state police chief and the Kangra superintendent of police so they dont influence a probe into a businessmans complaint about a threat to his lifeIn its order the high court also said it was intervening due to exceptional circumstances more particularly when the respondent Home Secretary had chosen to turn a blind eye to material presented in the caseAlso read Parliament breach accused undergo second facetoface questioningIn his complaint filed on October 28 Palampurbased businessman Nishant Sharma alleged threat to him his family and property from his business partnersHe had also questioned the conduct of Kundu alleging that the officer made phone calls to him and asked him to come to ShimlaShift them the DGP and the Kangra police chief to other posts where they would not have any opportunity to influence the investigation in the case a division bench of Chief Justice M S Ramachandra Rao and Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua had saidIn the light of the material available to us in this case till date we are satisfied that exceptional circumstances do exist for intervening in the matter more particularly when the respondent Home Secretary had chosen to turn a blind eye to the said material for reasons best known to him the high court had saidThe HC had on November 10 taken cognisance of another complaint by Sharma with the Shimla superintendent of police two days after the DGP filed a defamation case against the businessmanThe businessman alleged in the October 28 complaint that he was attacked by his business partners in Gurugram on August 25 and that two influential persons from Himachal Pradesh including a former IPS officer were also involvedHe claimed after the attack he came to Palampur in Kangra district but the DGP called him up from his official phone number and forced me to come to ShimlaOn the same day two criminals stop me at Mcleodganj in Dharamshala and threaten to harm my twoandhalfyear old kid and wife the businessman allegedI drove to the house of the Superintendent of Police Kangra Shalini Agnihotri at Dharamshala and narrated the plight to her and gave her my complaint but nothing has been done so far he claimed in his complaintHe said he wanted an independent and unbiased investigation and FIR against everyone involved including the DGPThis is the only way you would be able to apprehend this whole gang of extortionists he said marking the complaint to many people including the chief justice of the high courtThe DGP filed a defamation case against the businessman on November 4 accusing him of harming his reputation and attempting to malign his imageThe high court had observed that the SP Kangra showed very little progress in the investigation after having deliberately delayed the registration of FIR till November 16 despite having received a complaint on October 28 through an emailEarlier on November 10 the HC issued notice to the SPs of Shimla and Kangra and asked them to file a status report by November 16 It was only then that the Mcleodganj Police Station in Dharamshala filed an FIR against unknown persons on Sharmas complaintThe high court had observed that the material collected by the Shimla superintendent of police prima facie indicates that the DGP was in touch with an alleged business partner of the complainantThe DGP had allegedly repeatedly attempted to contact the complainant on October 27 15 missed calls and had put the complainant under surveillance and filed FIR against him it saidThe high court had observed that the states home secretary had ample opportunity to study the status reports filed by the SPs of Kangra and Shimla and take a call on the continuance of Kundu as the DGP but he did not move even his little finger in the matterDuring the hearing on December 21 the Advocate General of Himachal Pradesh had said the investigation was being done fairly and uninfluenced by the office of the DGP but amicus curiae Neeraj Gupta who is assisting the court in the matter insisted that the investigation cannot be fair in light of the material collected during investigation by Shimla SPThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever