Hamirpur/Shimla:

With samosa politics heating up in Himachal Pradesh, a BJP MLA has ordered 11 samosas online for Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

Taking a dig at the state’s Congress government over the CID conducting an enquiry into the sequence of events that led to samosas brought for the chief minister being served to his security staff, Ashish Sharma, the MLA from Hamirpur, shared this information on social media on Saturday.

However, the Congress maintained that the state government had not ordered any such inquiry and it could be an internal matter of the CID. A top CID official has also said that no formal inquiry was ordered into the incident.

“The state is already grappling with problems like unemployment, financial crisis, delay in employees’ pension and arrears of DA allowance and at such a time, ordering a CID inquiry on samosas brought for Chief Minister Sukhu is very disappointing,” Mr Sharma said in a Facebook post in Hindi.

He said when the people of the hill state are fighting for their rights, the government should focus on real issues and not on such small matters.

“In protest against this, I have sent 11 samosas to the chief minister, so that I can remind him that it is more important to solve the real problems of the people,” he added.

On October 21, Mr Sukhu had gone to attend a programme at the CID headquarters in Shimla, where samosas and cakes brought for the chief minister were served to his staff instead.

Subsequently, CID officials ordered an inquiry into the episode. A noting by a senior official on the inquiry report said the act was anti-government and anti-CID.

Sudhir Sharma, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Dharamshala, in a statement, said the Congress government has made Himachal Pradesh a laughing stock in the country.

Both the MLAs are known critics of Mr Sukhu. They were among the nine legislators, including Congress rebels and Independent MLAs, who had voted against the Congress in the Rajya Sabha polls earlier in the year. They later joined the BJP and won bypolls.

State BJP vice-president and Kangra MP Rajiv Bhardwaj asked what was inside the box, along with the samosas, that prompted the government to order an enquiry.

The state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the BJP, distributed samosas in Shimla on Saturday and raised slogans against the government for ignoring serious issues and probing petty matters.

State BJYM president Tilak Raj said people are unhappy with the government, educated and unemployed youngsters do not have jobs, but the CID is probing non-serving of samosas.

He claimed that the law-and-order situation has deteriorated in the state, drug abuse is on the rise among youngsters, including school-going children, of the 1,170 youngsters in the age group of 15-30 years admitted at rehabilitation centres, 35 per cent are “chitta” addicts, but the government is not bothered.

State BJP media in-charge Karan Nanda said the government has failed on all fronts. Himachal Pradesh, which was known as “dev bhoomi”, is in news for all the wrong reasons, such as toilet tax, freight tax and and an inquiry into samosas, he said.

On the other hand, Congress leaders accused the BJP of raising the controversy only to harass the chief minister politically.

A Congress spokesperson said the BJP is bent upon harming the cause of the state government.

Naresh Chauhan, media advisor to the chief minister, said the state government did not order any such inquiry and it could be an internal matter of the CID, a stance maintained by the agency as well.

Mr Sukhu had on Friday said the probe was into the “misbehaviour” of officials but the media presented it as an enquiry into missing samosas and claimed that the BJP has been running a smear campaign against the Congress government since his party secured a majority in the Assembly election.

Reiterating that it was an internal matter, CID Director General Ranjhan Ojha said in Shimla on Friday, “The chief minister was the chief guest at the launch of a data centre for the cyber-crime wing. After the event, the officials were having tea in the office when someone asked where were the eatables brought for the function and we said — ‘pata karo kya hua‘ (find out what happened).” “Neither have we issued any notice nor called for any explanation. The matter should not be politicised. We simply asked for a clarification as to what happened and a written report was submitted. We have no intention of taking action against anyone.” 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Five police officers face a CID probe, likely to lead to disciplinary action, after consuming samosas meant for Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

Mr Sukhu clarified on Friday that the probe was into “misbehaviour” of officials but the media is presenting it as an enquiry into the missing samosas.

Reiterating that it was an internal matter, CID Director General Ranjhan Ojha said in Shimla, “Officials were having tea in the office when someone asked where were the eatables brought for the function and we said, ‘pata karo kya hua‘ (find out what happened). Neither have we issued any notice nor have we called for any explanation. The matter should not be politicised. We simply asked for clarification as to what happened, and a written report was submitted. We have no intention of taking action against anyone.”

What Exactly Happened?

The investigation report details that an Inspector General (IG) officer asked a sub-inspector to procure food from a five star hotel in Shimla’s Lakkar Bazaar for the chief minister’s program. Following this order, an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) and a head constable driver retrieved three boxes of samosas and cake, handing them over to a woman officer of Inspector rank. This officer, unaware of the items’ intended recipient, instructed for the boxes to be placed in a senior officer’s room, where they were then moved between rooms.

When questioned, the officers involved claimed that they had confirmed with tourism department personnel on duty, who reportedly stated that the items in the boxes were not on the CM’s menu. The investigation further noted that an MTO (Motor Transport Officer) and HASI (Head Assistant Sub-Inspector) were assigned to manage refreshments like tea and paan for the CM’s staff. According to her statement, the woman Inspector was not informed that the items inside the boxes were meant for the CM. Without opening the boxes, she directed them to the MT section.

The IG’s orderly, HASI, testified that the boxes were opened by a sub-inspector and a head constable and intended for the DSP and staff in the IG’s office. Following these instructions, the food was served with tea to approximately 10-12 people in the room.

Based on statements from those involved, the CID report indicates that only a sub-inspector was aware that the boxes contained refreshments for the CM. Nevertheless, these boxes, overseen by a woman Inspector, were ultimately passed to the MT section without higher clearance, and the items were inadvertently served to the CM’s staff instead.

BJP-Congress Spar Over Issue

The BJP said the state government has become a “laughing stock”, while Mr Sukhu called the rival party’s conduct over the issue “childish”. Taking a dig at a CID inquiry on the October 21 incident, former union minister Smriti Irani said there was no probe when Congress leaders “looted” the country’s exchequer. Leaders also slammed the state government “misplaced priorities” for giving importance to the missing samosas while ignoring people’s problems.

Meawnwhile, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Jai Ram Thakur ate samosas with party workers, alleging the Himachal Pradesh government takes decisions without applying its mind and then tries to change them when they become a matter of joke. “The opposition has not eaten those samosas, those who were served those samosas were a part of the government, so how could the act be anti-government?” Thakur said in a video statement issued in Shimla.

नेता प्रतिपक्ष एवं पूर्व मुख्यमंत्री श्री जयराम ठाकुर जी ने मंडी में भाजपा पदाधिकारियों व कार्यकर्ताओं के साथ स्नेहशील भेंट की और समोसों का आनंद भी उठाया। pic.twitter.com/7JKDHFHM8G

— BJP Himachal Pradesh (@BJP4Himachal) November 8, 2024

Jalebis Took Centrestage Last Month

The BJP-Congress exchange over samosas comes a month after jalebis came to the spotlight as the BJP send the sweet to Congress’ headquarters as the saffron party secured a victory in Haryana Assembly elections.

This came after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had shown a box of ‘Matu Ram Halwai’ jalebis at an election rally in Gohana on October 3to criticise the BJP’s business policies. He said the jalebis should be sold nationwide and exported to generate employment.

Shimla:

A matter of refreshments getting served to the staff of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu instead of the chief minister by mistake has assumed disproportionate dimensions following a CID probe that termed the goof up an “anti-government” act.

Due to a lack of coordination, three boxes of samosas and cakes were brought from Hotel Radisson Blue in Lakkar Bazaar to be served to the chief minister who had gone to the CID headquarters for a function on October 21. However, the eatables were served to the CM security staff, according to the enquiry report conducted by a deputy SP rank officer.

The report stated that an officer of IG rank had asked a sub-inspector (SI) of police to get some eatables from the hotel for the CM’s visit. The SI in turn directed an assistant SI (ASI) and a head constable to bring the refreshments.

The ASI and the head constable fetched the refreshments from the hotel in three sealed boxes and informed the SI.

The police officers in their statement said when they asked the tourism department staff on duty whether the snacks in the three boxes were to be served to the chief minister, they said they were not included in the menu.

The enquiry report said only the said SI, who deputed the ASI and the head constable with the task of getting the snacks from the hotel, was aware of the fact that the three boxes were for Sukhu.

The lady inspector, to whom the food items were handed over, did not ask any senior officer and sent the refreshments to the mechanical transport (MT) section which deals with refreshments.

Interestingly, a highly placed official in the CID department wrote in his note that all persons named in the enquiry report have acted in an anti-CID and anti-government manner due to which the items could not be served to the VVIPs.

They acted according to their agenda, the note added. PT

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Five persons were booked after condoms, gutkha and stones were allegedly found in samosas supplied to a major automobile firm in Pune. Image for representation purposes only.
| Photo Credit: Pixabay

Five persons were booked after condoms, gutkha and stones were allegedly found in samosas supplied to a major automobile firm in Pimpri Chinchwad in Pune, a police official said on April 8.

Those booked comprise two workers of a subcontracting firm that was asked to supply the samosas as well as three partners of another such firm that had been removed earlier for adulteration, the official said.

“The three partners had allegedly planted these two workers to ensure the firm that had got the samosa contract now would get defamed,” he said.

“Catalyst Service Solutions Pvt Ltd is responsible for providing food items to the canteen of the automobile firm. The firm had given a contract to provide samosas to another subcontracting firm named Manohar Enterprises. On Saturday, some of the automobile firm employees found condoms, gutka and stones in the samosas,” he said.

After Manohar Enterprises’ staffers were questioned over the incident, it was found that two workers, identified as Firoz Shaikh and Vicky Shaikh, had allegedly stuffed condoms, gutka and stones in the samosas, the Chikhli police station official said.

“We registered a case under IPC section 328 (causing hurt by means of poison) and 120B (criminal conspiracy). The two accused told us they are employees of SRA Enterprises and were sent by its partners to Manohar Enterprises to adulterate food supplied by the latter,” he said.

SRA Enterprises was removed from the contract earlier after a bandage was found in a snack they had supplied and the partners, identified as Rahim Shaikh, Azhar Shaikh, and Majhar Shaikh, wanted to smear the market reputation of Manohar Enterprises.

“One person has been arrested. Further probe is underway,” he added.