HP govt to withdraw prosecution sanction against IAS officers

DHARAMSHALA: The Himachal Pradesh government has decided to withdraw the prosecution sanction granted against a retired and a serving Indian administrative service (IAS) officer in a case pending against Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) in the Supreme Court.

The state government had sought an opinion from the law department on the issue and the department opinion came in affirmative giving relief to the retired IAS officer Deepak Sanan and serving officer Ajay Sharma.

The state anti-corruption and vigilance bureau had filed an FIR at its Dharmshala police station against HPCA, over alleged irregularities in allotment of land to the sports body to build a five-star hotel “The Pavilion” for stay of players.

Sanan was the principle secretary (revenue), while Sharma was the director, sports and youth services, when the land was allotted to HPCA on lease.

In the FIR, the vigilance bureau has named 18 people, including HPCA chief Anurag Thakur, his father and former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, functionaries of the HPCA, and eight serving and retired bureaucrats.

Dhumal was indicted for influencing the decision of his cabinet to lease out land, Sanan was charged with changing the land of use on his own discretion.

Sanan and Sharma were charged under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act.

The Centre had denied prosecution sanction against the two officers but the government had filed chargesheet against them.

The HPCA case is listed for hearing in the Supreme Court on April 17.