New Delhi: A controversy has erupted in Himachal Pradesh over samosas that went missing from an event attended by state Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. The event took place at the CID headquarters where boxes of snacks meant to be served to the Chief Minister went missing. The row snowballed over allegations that the CID had launched a probe to investigate the case of the missing samosas.
Rejecting the allegations, officials said no probe had been instituted and that it was an “internal matter” that was being blown out of proportion. Sanjeev Ranjan Ojha, the director general of Himachal Pradesh CID, said it was a simple matter of a bunch of officers gathering for tea and wondering where boxes of snacks ordered for the event were, India Today reported.
Ojha said that no “probe” had been launched and all that happened was an appeal being made to find out what had happened to the boxes.
“The Chief Minister was our chief guest for a function. When the function was over, officers were sitting and having tea and someone told that some stuff was brought and what happened to that, just find out. It was just this only, and it is purely an internal matter of the CID. It is sad and unfortunate that it has been blown out of proportion and politicised. It is unfortunate that people who have nothing to do with this are targeted,” Ojha was quoted as saying.
The Chief Minister’s Office also denied that a probe had been ordered, with chief media advisor Naresh Chauhan saying it was CID’s “internal matter”.
“The government did not order any such investigation, and it has nothing to do with this matter. The CID is investigating the matter at its own level. After all, who was given the refreshments served to the Chief Minister?” Chauhan said.
Earlier, reports claimed that CID officials said that when they asked the tourism department employees on duty whether the food boxes were to be served to the Chief Minister, they were told that they (the boxes) were not on his menu.
It was also said that some officials were made in charge of the arrangements for refreshments meant for the staff accompanying the Chief Minister. A woman official said that she was not aware that the items inside these three boxes were to be served to the Chief Minister Sukhu and those three boxes were handed over to the MT section without opening them.
