No official is being victimised: Himachal CM

Shimla, July 30 (IANS) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh Wednesday said it was wrong to say that the government was victimizing any IAS (Indian Administrative Services) officer on political grounds.

"It may be the feeling of handful of officers, not a vast majority. If any officer, individual or group of persons has connived in a wrongful activity, they will have to face consequences. Nobody is above the law," he told reporters in an informal interaction here.

Rubbishing former director general of police I.D. Bhandari's charges that he was being victimised in a phone tapping case, the chief minister said: "The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau is functioning independently in my regime. The tradition of misusing the vigilance commission for political vendetta was started by BJP leader Prem Kumar Dhumal, when he became the chief minister in 1998 and then in 2007."

"He (Dhumal) must go down to the history. Senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar also remained Himachal's chief minister twice, but he never resorted to any victimization."

The chief minister said Dhumal had carried out political vendetta against him and implicated him in false cases in both his tenures.

"I had to face trials every time. But I was acquitted by the court as I had done nothing wrong. I was personally victimised from 1998 to 2003 by the then Dhumal government, but we did not do anything against them on coming into power, thereafter, as I don't believe in vendetta," he said.

The chief minister said it was strange that now when the government was probing the allegations against Dhumal and previous Bharatiya Janata Party government's as per Congress charge-sheet, Dhumal was unable to tolerate it.

"I have no personal enmity against Dhumal or others," he added.

"The former chief minister (Dhumal) should not be afraid of any inquiry, if he is innocent," Virbhadra Singh said.

Responding to allegations in Punjab that drugs were being manufactured in Himachal and transported to Punjab from there, the chief minister said Punjab had taken an escapist route.

"Punjab should better set its house in order," the chief minister added.