Shimla, June 15
The south-west monsoon today hit the hill state, almost 15 days in advance, with a heavy downpour lashing most parts of the state since last night.

The state received cumulative 87.4 mm of rain between June 1 and 15, which is 155 per cent higher than normal value. All the districts of the state, except tribal areas of Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti, received excess rainfall during this period. The early arrival of the monsoon has cut short the tourist season as rain in the hill will bring respite from the sweltering heat in the plains.

As per the forecast by the local Meteorological Centre, the state will be lashed by heavy rains till June 21. The centre has also issued a warning of heavy rain and thundershowers at isolated places during the next 72 hours.

The districts of Bilaspur, Kangra, Sirmaur, Una, Mandi and Shimla have been lashed by heavy rain and thundershower. Kangra has received the heaviest rainfall of 191.6 mm, which is 365 per cent more than the normal rainfall during this period. Una district too has received 116.9 mm of rain, which is 411 per cent more than normal rainfall. Jogindernagar has had the highest rainfall of 415 mm, followed by Dharamsala at 335 mm.

Mandi , June 15
Congress candidate Pratibha Singh and BJP candidate Jai Ram Thakur forced to restrict the campaign indoors for the Mandi Lok Sabha byelections due to the continuing rains that lashed the region today.

Former MP Pratibha Singh has fixed public meetings in Balh today but the workers were forced to organise indoor meetings due to the rains.

The same was the case with Jai Ram Thakur, who organised similar meetings of party workers in Seraj, his home constituency.

Indian National Trade Union Congress state president Hardeep Bawa told a press conference here today that the Congress government would ensure 70 per cent employment in factories and projects and address the pending issues of labourers and employees in the state after the model code of conduct was lifted.

State officer-bearers of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha today staged a march in support of Jai Ram Thakur.

Shimla, June 15
The crime branch of the state CID has registered an FIR in a video CD case allegedly involving a veteran Congress leader late last night on the basis of a complaint filed by a resident of Mandi town.

A case has been registered by the CID under Sections 292, 465, 469 and 471, IPC, Section 6, Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986, and Sections 66-E and 67-A, IT Act.

The timing of the release of the CD, when the campaigning for the Mandi Lok Sabha bypoll is at its peak with the main political players - the Congress and the BJP - slugging it out, is also interesting.

The video CD, allegedly featuring a few minutes clip of a veteran politician with a woman, was released in Mandi on the night of June 13.

It was following a complaint lodged by Hem Singh of Sain Mohallah in Mandi town, that the crime branch registered the FIR late last night. He has alleged that the CD which features a lookalike of the Congress leader has been released with the intention of defaming the leader.

In his complaint, he has named a Delhi-based doctor who could have done this defamatory act. Though it was unlikely that there would be any immediate follow-up action in the case, the CD could be later handed over to forensic experts, police officials said.

Shimla, June 15
The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has recommended the filing of a criminal case in the alleged phone tapping issue in its report, submitted by the investigating team here today.

The 12-page report, along with several annexures, has been submitted by AP Singh, DIG, Vigilance, who was heading the investigating team, to Prithvi Raj, Additional Director-General of Police (ADGP), Vigilance.

“The report, which indicates towards some illegality having been committed, has been submitted to me and I will present it to the government after examining it later,” confirmed Prithvi Raj.

He is expected to submit the report to Principal Secretary (Home) Tarun Sridhar on Monday.

Apprehending tapping of phones of Congress leaders, including Virbhadra Singh, during the BJP regime, the hard discs of all computers used by the CID and Vigilance Bureau were seized on the intervening night of December 24 and 26 last year. The eight hard discs were handed over to the State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL), Junga, here for examination and later the inquiry was entrusted to the Vigilance Bureau.

In case the government decided to register a case, it would be some senior police officers whose names were likely to figure in the FIR and they could also be summoned for questioning in the near future, said sources.

The cellular companies, that intercepted several numbers, would also be associated in the investigation after the registration of a criminal case.

The investigating team had scanned the eight hard discs containing over 70,000 audio files, but not gone into the entire contents as this would have been a time-consuming exercise that would be undertaken only after the registration of the FIR.

However, sources said recordings of telephonic conversations of senior politicians, both from the Congress and the BJP, bureaucrats, police officers and a few journalists had been found.

As per the report, there has been a violation of the Indian Telegraph Act and the Information Technology Act.

Recordings with permission, which should have been destroyed within three months, have been retained and moreover, there has been no follow-up action in cases where valid reasons had been cited for seeking interception permission.

The bureau has also questioned the grounds on which permission had been granted by the Home Department for intercepting the telephone talks of people.

Some of the audio recordings are almost two-year-old and that again is an offence as all record pertaining to the legal interception cannot be retained beyond a six-month period by the CID and not over six months by cellular service providers.

Mandi, June 15
Jai Ram Thakur, BJP candidate for the Mandi byelection, today dared Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to test his popularity by not campaigning in Mandi.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi did not campaign in the byelection held there as he was a popular leader, but Virbhadra was burning the midnight oil campaigning till 12 midnight every day in support of his wife, he said.

Jai Ram has miles to cover in the country’s second largest constituency, which has 11,24,066 voters spreading over 17 Assembly segments in six districts - Mandi, Kullu, Shimla, Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti and Bharmour in Chamba district, almost half of the state.

Talking to mediapersons here, Jai Ram claimed that the Chief Minister had been campaigning till midnight in support of his wife and Congress candidate Pratibha Singh. Besides, his son Vikramaditya Singh and Pratibha Singh have campaigned in Seraj, his home constituency, twice or thrice.

“This shows that I have emerged stronger than they have expected and the competition is on an even keel,” Jai Ram claimed.

Congress leaders had been saying during rallies that Jai Ram was a weak candidate and forced to contest, he said.

“But today, the entire BJP is with me,” he claimed.

Jai Ram said he was getting a good response from youth and women wherever he visited.

“I have covered 16 Assembly constituencies till now. The Lahaul-Spiti constituency will be covered in the last leg,” he added.

Even as Leader of the Opposition PK Dhumal has been campaigning in his support, Jai Ram is banking on his strength of being a four-time legislator from Seraj in Mandi district and he has toured the state intensively when he was the state BJP president at that time till 2007 when the BJP formed the government on its own for the first time in the state.

Jai Ram charged that rival candidate Pratibha Singh did not distribute the MPLAD fund in the constituency and the Congress government’s five-month-old regime had disappointed people so far.

Shimla, June 15
The police on Friday found the decomposed body of an employee of the Himachal Cooperative Bank from the Annandale area.

The police said Rajinder Singh was missing for the last 10 days and a report had been lodged. Hailing from Sirmaur district, he had been posted in Shimla. — TNS