After a spat among its top bureaucrats early this year, Himachal Pradesh is now seeing open squabbling by its senior police officers – in a dispute that first began over a British-era bungalow.The two main characters in the tussle are officiating Director General of Police (DGP) Ashok Tewari and DIG (Traffic, Tourism and Railways) Sanjeev Gandhi, with Shimla Superintendent of Police (SP) Gaurav Singh and former DGP S R Mardi playing secondary roles.The sprawling Southwood bungalow that sparked off the war of words is the official residence of the Shimla SP. A part of the Brockhurst Estate, Southwood is located in one of Shimla’s poshest areas, that also houses the residence of the Governor, the Leader of the Opposition and former chief minister Jairam Thakur, and Himachal Revenue and Tribal Minister Jagat Singh Negi, among others.Gaurav Singh took over as Shimla SP in January, but he has not been able to move into Southwood as Gandhi, his predecessor in the post, is yet to vacate it. Singh has been staying at the Police Headquarters.In June, six months after he was moved out as the Shimla SP, Gandhi was finally issued a notice by the Police Headquarters directing him to vacate Southwood. The notice, issued under the Himachal Pradesh Allotment of Government Residences (General Pool) Rules, also proposed a penalty of nearly Rs 1.8 lakh on Gandhi for overstaying. Sources said Gandhi said he could not shift as the government accommodation allotted to him was occupied by the Medical Superintendent of Indian Gandhi Medical College & Hospital. Subsequently, another house was allotted to Gandhi, but he rejected it reportedly because of its “dilapidated” condition.As Gandhi delayed vacating the bungalow, on July 31, DGP Tewari constituted a three-member committee to conduct a special audit of expenditure incurred on repairs and maintenance works at Southwood between 2022 and 2025, when Gandhi headed the Shimla district police. The committee was reportedly asked to examine the source, sanction, allocation and utilisation of funds, as well as scrutinise financial records and identify any procedural violations or financial irregularities.A senior officer said, “The base of the special audit was a report… which said that approximately Rs 14.07 lakh was spent on the maintenance, repairs of Southwood between 2022 and 2025. Of this, Rs 11.57 lakh came out of the residential fund of the district police, and Rs 2.50 lakh was money meant for the maintenance of a police post in Shoghi, Shimla.”Story continues below this adAlmost simultaneously, Gandhi sent a report to the Chief Minister’s office claiming irregularities in procurement of equipment by the Traffic, Tourism and Railways Department, as well as in spending of the Road Safety Fund under it.In response, DGP Tewari ordered an audit of financial records and sanctioned expenditure, and investigation into compliance with the Himachal Pradesh Road Safety Fund and Activities Rules, 2022, by the Road Safety Fund. It nominated a Joint Controller of the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to conduct the audit.Gandhi objected, demanding an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India through the Accountant General (Audit), Himachal, – a demand rejected by Tewari as “inappropriate”. While Tewari declined to comment on the row, Gandhi confirmed raising the issue of Road Safety Fund spending with senior officials, and added: “I have conveyed my stand pertaining to my official residence to the department.”Adding a twist to the tale, remarks surfaced of ex-DGP Mardi questioning “delays” in the handling of the investigation into fake degrees of Manav Bharti University in March 2020, under Tiwari as Additional DGP (CID).Story continues below this adThe Police Headquarters responded to this with a detailed rebuttal, citing official records and asserting that the CID had completed its inquiry within a week, and that subsequent decisions were taken at the level of the then DGP (that is, Mardi).Mardi told The Indian Express: “I have nothing to do with either Ashok Tewari or Sanjeev Gandhi. I heard that BJP MLA Bikram Thakur had raised the issue of the delay in registration of FIRs in the Manav Bharti fake degree scam. A journalist called me to get my version, and I told him that, whatever the reasons for the delay, they were mentioned in the FIR. To my surprise, the next day I found that the office of DGP Ashok Tewari had issued a rebuttal claiming that I had made certain allegations.” In a sharp criticism of the public airing of differences by the top police officers, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) R D Nazeem told The Indian Express that it was “absolute indiscipline”. “A force whose senior officers are busy pointing guns at each other, what will they do in a real crisis? Whatever is going on, is not good,” he said, adding that Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu would be apprised of the matter.Gandhi, incidentally, was involved in a public row last year too, when he had openly attacked DGP Atul Verma over a probe against him. The two had eventually been sent on leave.Earlier this year, Himachal’s bureaucracy was caught up in allegations and counter-allegations, with ex-Chief Secretary Sanjay Gupta questioning his former colleagues over clearances given for a mega housing project in Solan. The two he openly blamed, current Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) chief R D Dhiman and former RERA chief Shrikant Baldi, have both been Chief Secretaries of the state.