HP govt gives nod to prosecute former BJP minister

The Himachal Pradesh government today gave nod to the Vigilance and Anti-corruption department to prosecute BJP legislator and former minister Rajeev Bindal in an alleged case of corruption.
The Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau will soon file charge sheet in the 13-year-old recruitment case for alleged irregularities in appointments in Solan Municipal Council.
Bindal, an MLA from Nahan, is considered close to former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. He was the then Chairman of Solan Municipal Council.
"We have got the prosecution sanction from the government into this case and will put up challan in court shortly," a source in the bureau said, adding that the vigilance charge sheet included names of 29 persons, including two State Administrative Services officers.

The Vigilance Bureau had registered a case against Bindal on December 1, 2006 under sections 420, 468, 471 and 120 B of the Indian Penal Code and section 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
However, the then government could not take the case to its logical conclusion.
The BJP, which came to power in December 2007, put the case into back burner. After returning to power in 2012, Congress got the case reopened.
Meanwhile, Bindal has dubbed the latest move of the government as "political vendetta".