After facing action for alleged phone tapping of politician and later acquitted in the case, former Director General Police ID Bhandari has filed a case against government officials for falsely implicating and harassing him.
A case on the complaint of Bhandari has been filed at Chotta Shimla Police station on the directions of Himachal Pradesh High Court, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Headquarters) Shimla, Pramod Shukla said.
The FIR has been registered under Sections 218, 211, 167, 504, 500, 441 and 120(B) of the IPS and Section 26 of the Telegraph Act against unknown persons. “The government officials during the previous government have falsely implicated me in false case as there was no exchange with the Crime Investigation Department (CID) as was alleged,” Bhandari told The Statesman.
Former top cop said before the change of government in 2012, there was much controversy over some officials phones being at the behest of the then Prem Kumar Dhumal led Bharatiya Janata Party government.
“After the change of guards in the government, the government officials allegedly seized computers of CID (which was in itself illegal as Centre government norms) without following the set norms,” he said.
Though no cognizable offence could be made out in the case, the officials implicated him in false case and even seized his officials. “I was continuously harassed for several months after which a chargesheet was filed in the court,” he said, adding but the same was quashed.
“I was discharged from the lower court and later from Sessions court in November 2017,” he added.
Bhandari had filed the case with police on 28 June but the case wasn’t filed at that time as it was referred to headquarters for seeking opinion. Later, he approached the HC, who gave directions to the police to register a case on 10 August.
The enquiry into alleged phone taping case was ordered after Virbhadra Singh after returned to power on 25 December, 2012 and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Vigilance wing headed by a DIG was constituted to probe the matter.