Shimla, May 24 -- The Himachal Pradesh high court on Friday questioned Shimla superintendent of police (SP)-led special investigation team (SIT) for its probe into the death Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (HPPCL) chief engineer-cum-general manager Vimal Negi and said it was "appalled" by the manner of the investigation. "This court is appalled by the mode and manner in which the investigation is going on in terms of the affidavit filed by the superintendent of police, Shimla. It appears as if the SIT is of the view that its job is to investigate whether deceased Vimal Negi ended his life for the simple reason that he was being subjected to improper behavior by Desh Raj, director (electrical) and Harikesh Meena, managing director (HPPCL)," the high court bench of justice of Ajay Mohan Goel observed. The court made the observations while handing over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Vimal Negi's body was recovered from Bhakra Dam in Bilaspur on March 18, eight days after he was reported missing. His family alleged Vimal was under "immense mental stress" and was being "harassed" by senior HPPCL officials. Police registered a case on charges of abetment to suicide on March 22. In her complaint, Vimal's wife Kiran Negi accused top HPPCL officials, including Desh Raj and Harikesh Meena, of mental harassment and mistreatment. Subsequently, an SIT with Shimla SP Sanjeev Gandhi as the head was formed to investigate the matter. The high court questioned the "conspicuous silence" of the SIT from the angle that Vimal was being pressurised by his superiors for extraneous reasons to help a project proponent. The court pointed out that even when the postmortem report said Vimal Negi likely died around March 13 or 14, no endeavour was made to ascertain as to what transpired between March 10, the date of his disappearance, and March 13. "When the family of the deceased was crying hoarse from day one that there was some foul play in the death of Vimal Negi, why till date, no investigation was being carried out by the SIT to ascertain as to what transpired from March 10 up to the recovery of the body, defies any logic," the court order said. Rasing questions on police efforts, the court said, "It is strange that the first SIT, constituted on March 15, to trace Vimal Negi, despite technology being at its disposal, was not able to locate him." The court added that from the contents of the affidavit filed by Shimla SP, it appeared the SIT was "trying to portray the deceased had a history of nervous disorder/illness." The high court said that if the director general of police (DGP) has concerns about the fairness of the probe, it can instil confidence even if the SIT is conducting a fair investigation. DGP Atul Verma had, in an affidavit to the high court on Tuesday, questioned the SIT probe and said that "It can be safely concluded that it has been a questionable investigation till now and influence/attempted influence of the Shimla SP, who has been posted for more than two years in this posts, seems to have extended beyond his domain." The affidavit filed as part of a status report was made public on Wednesday. In the affidavit, the DGP pointed out that assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Pakaj, who was part of an earlier SIT, "hid and formatted" a pen drive recovered from Vimal's body. "If the director general of police of the state has a concern about the fairness of the investigation, then even if it is being carried out by the SIT in right earnest, it shall never instil confidence whatever may be the report of the SIT," the bench said. It added, "...issues flagged by the DGP raise grave doubts over the fairness of the investigation being conducted (even) though veracity of said status report has been questioned by the advocate general." The Shimla SP had, however, in his affidavit claimed that the probe was progressing with "utmost professionalism" and a final report was likely within three to four weeks. The court pointed out that the SIT had, through advocate general (AG) Anup Rattan, raised questions over the authority of the DGP to raise such questions on the investigation. "Not only this, the mode and manner in which the investigation is being carried out by the SIT, prima facie, is not in sync with what has come in the inquiry report of additional chief secretary (home)," the court added. After getting conflicting affidavits from the Shimla SP and the DGP, the high court on Wednesday reserved its judgment....