Shimla
The State High Court has rejected the petition to withdraw the transfer order of Himachal Director General of Police (DGP) Sanjay Kundu and SP Kangra Shalini Agnihotri. The division bench of Chief Justice MS Ramachandra Rao and Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua gave this order. Continuing its old orders, the court ordered the state government to transfer these two officers from their posts. Advocate General Anoop Vaidya informed about the decision. The High Court has left the decision of constituting a SIT to investigate the case to the government. The government may consider constituting a SIT in the case. SIT can be formed under the chairmanship of IG rank police officer. The government will file the next status report in the court on February 28.
It is noteworthy that after getting interim relief from the Supreme Court, Kundu had applied to withdraw the High Court’s decision to transfer him to some other post. SP Kangra had also filed an application to withdraw the orders given against him. It was said in the application that he was not influencing the investigation in any way and he should be allowed to continue in his post. On December 26, the High Court had ordered the removal of DGP Kundu and SP Kangra Shalini from their current posts. The court had ordered the Home Secretary to take necessary steps in this regard soon. After this, Kundu got interim relief from the Supreme Court and obtained a stay order on his transfer. Now the High Court has rejected the petition to cancel his transfer.
This matter is being heard in the High Court regarding the security of Palampur businessman Nishant Kumar Sharma and independent investigation of the case. The court has already issued interim orders to provide proper security to the businessman. In this case, Nishant had filed a petition in the court to replace SP Kangra. He had accused the SP of negligence in discharging his duties. At the same time, the DGP told the court that his only intention to contact Nishant was that he wanted to resolve the matter by mediating between the two parties.
