12 cops penalised for dereliction of duty
SHIMLA : Nearly two years after a woman assistant town planner was shot dead by owner of a guest house at Kasauli during a drive to demolish illegal structures, police have penalised 12 cops who were accompanying the officer for dereliction of duty.
Orders have been issued for permanent forfeiture of five years of service of the twelve cops. “Each of them has been awarded punishment of permanent forfeiture of five years of approved service (their service will not be considered for promotion and pensionary benefits),” said inspector general of police, armed police and training, Himanshu Mishra.
Those penalised are inspector Madan Singh, sub-inspector (SI) Kuldeep Singh, SI Dalip Singh, head constable (HC) Nagender Singh, HC Hem Raj, constables— Sanjeev Kumar, Sunil Kumar, Narender Kumar and Ishwar Dass and three women cops— Champa, Usha and Sharda.
Shail Bala Sharma, who had gone to supervise a demolition drive, was shot dead by Vijay Singh, owner of a guest house, on May 1. The incident had sent shockwaves in the region, promoting the apex court to take suo motu notice of it. The accused had managed to flee the spot despite presence of policemen and a Quick Reaction Team (QRT). Vijay was arrested two days later from a temple in Mathura.
What baffled everyone was that two QRT personnel, who were holding AK-47 rifles, also failed to react after the accused opened fire at Shail Bala.
Facing flak from all quarters, police had initially said Shail had gone to the demolition spot without informing the police.
Magisterial probe had indicted cops
The government had ordered a magisterial probe into the incident that indicted the cops for dereliction of duty. The probe was headed by the then Shimla divisional commissioner Dinesh Malhotra. The report had pointed out that the team of officers, led by Shail Bala, was assisted by 14 cops, including two personnel from the quick response team. It mentioned that the station house officer (SHO) and 14 other cops were unarmed and were only carrying sticks and shields. Two cops assisting the demolition team were equipped with AK-47 but did not fire at the hotel owner. Even the inspector and the assistant sub inspector (ASI) were not carrying their service revolver.