Bizman’s complaint against DGP: Will verify facts before action, says Sukhu

Himachal chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said on Saturday facts have to be verified before filing a first information report (FIR) based on a complaint filed by a businessman alleging threat to his life and property.

This comes a day after the Himachal Pradesh high court issued a notice to the state police, seeking a status report on the complaint filed by the Palampur-based businessman.

Replying to media queries over the complaint against the Himachal director general of police, Sukhu said facts of complaint have to be verified before registering an FIR. “This is a normal process of law and we will give the same reply in the high court,” he said.

“Anybody can file a complaint against anyone including the chief minister and cabinet ministers but facts have to be ascertained and verified before filing the FIR,” Sukhu said, adding that “no one is above law, neither the CM nor the DGP”.

Shimla superintendent of police (SP) Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi had on Friday confirmed receiving an official communication from the court to submit a status report in the case on November 16.

In his complaint to the Shimla SP, Nishant Sharma has marked the chief justice of the high court and alleged an impending threat to him, his family members and property from his partners, while citing an incident of “brutal attack” on him in Haryana’s Gurugram district on August 25 and claiming that two influential persons from Himachal, including a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, were identified in the CCTV camera footage of the incident.

“I came to Palampur after the attack but the DGP called me from his official number and forced me to come to Shimla. On the same day, two criminals stopped me at McLeodganj and threatened to harm my two-and-a-half-year-old kid and wife,” the businessman has alleged.

“I drove to the house of the Kangra SP at Dharamshala and narrated the plight to her and gave her my complaint, but nothing has been done so far,” Sharma has claimed.

The businessman told the media in Palampur on Monday that he was dismayed to learn that a false and manufactured case was lodged against him.

“I demand an independent and unbiased investigation and the lodging of an FIR against everyone, including the DGP. This is the only way you would be able to apprehend this whole gang of extortionists,” he had said.

Earlier, a case of defamation was registered against Sharma on a complaint from DGP Sanjay Kundu for allegedly harming his reputation and attempting to malign his image.

In his complaint, the DGP had maintained that Sharma wrote to him on his official e-mail address on October 29, with copies to other officials, and made false allegations with intentions to harm his reputation and tarnish his image.

A case under sections 211 (false charge of offence made with intent to injure), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal code (IPC) was registered against the businessman.

The DGP had said he had filed the criminal complaint against Sharma and would also file a civil suit for defamation against him. He had claimed that the businessman had levelled false allegations against him and several other renowned people.

Calls were made to Sharma from the police headquarters as there were apprehensions that something nefarious was going on, the DGP had said, adding that the Gurugram Police had not found any cognisable offence in the businessman’s complaint regarding the attack on him.