Apex court asks for report on ‘brazen’ case

SHIMLA: The Supreme Court on Thursday sought a status report on the probe into the Kasauli incident, in which a hotel owner allegedly shot dead an officer during a demolition drive.

The court also asked the Himachal Pradesh government to keep it informed about the status of the implementation of its order to demolish illegal constructions at 13 hotels in Kasauli.

Terming Tuesday’s incident as “unfortunate”, the Supreme Court said it was a result of nonimplementation of laws related to unauthorised constructions.

Assistant town and country planner Shail Bala Sharma was shot at by Vijay Singh, the owner of Narayani Guest House. Sharma was overseeing the demolition of unauthorised construction there. She later succumbed to injuries.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court had pulled up authorities for their failure to ensure safety of government officials.

Taking serious note of the killing of the officer, who was supervising the demolitions following a court order, a bench of justice Madan B Lokur and justice Deepak Gupta termed it a “brazen act” and asked the state government why the police could not stop the alleged assailant from fleeing.

“We might stop passing any orders if you are going to kill people,” the court said after the matter was mentioned before it.

HOTELIER ARRESTED

Police on Thursday arrested Singh from Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura, ANI reported.

Police launched a man-hunt for Singh, and even announced a reward of ₹1 lakh for information on his whereabouts.

Over five dozen policemen and a dog squad were sent out to comb the nearby forests for the suspect since Wednesday morning.