Chargesheet names 24 persons including, 22 govt employees

SHIMLA: After a long investigation, police on Saturday sent a charge sheet to the state government. Names of as many as 22 government officers figured in the charge sheet.

At the start of the year, jaundice outbreak had claimed around 16 lives and left nearly 8,000 people sick. Due to the poor maintenance of Malyana sewerage treatment plant, the water of Ashwani Khad got contaminated, leading to a jaundice outbreak in the town.

Police had arrested nearly half a dozen people in this case including sewerage treatment plant contractor and some irrigation and public health (IPH) department employees.

After the high court directed the special investigation team (SIT) to probe the role of government officials responsible to maintain STPs in Shimla, police expanded the investigation.

Sources told HT that around 22 officers including 20 from the IPH and two from Shimla Municipal Corporation were named in the charge sheet. Besides this, the plant contractor and supervisor have also been named.

Of the total 24 people named in the charge sheet, nine have been mentioned as accused while 15 as co-accused.

Of the co-accused, 13 IPH employees had been manning the Ashwani Khad source in past.

Inspector general (IG) police (southern range) SZH Zaidi said the charge sheet has been sent for prosecution sanction to the state government.

“We have completed the investigation and sent for prosecution sanction to the state,” he said.