A Supreme Court ordered demolition drive in Himachal’s Kasauli turned tragic after a hotelier opened fire at the civic team killing a PWD official and critically injuring other.
Assistant Town planner Shail Bala Sharma who was overseeing the operation, was shot dead by Vijay Singh, a hotel owner, following an altercation with her over the demolition of his illegal structure.
Singh allegedly fired 3 rounds at the team killing the woman official instantly and injuring Gulab Singh, a labourer who was also present there.
The civic officers were tasked with razing illegal structures in 13 hotels and resorts in the town.
The Court had called the structures unsafe for tourists. The incident has invited the fury of the Supreme Court which termed the matter as “extremely serious”.
A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta observed that the Narayani guest house owner, Vijay Singh, who allegedly fired at Assistant Town Planner Shail Bala Sharma, had committed a “brazen act of defiance of this court’s orders”.
Noting that Sharma was in Kasauli to implement the court’s order, the bench said it might stop passing any order “if you are going to kill people”. The bench requested CJI Misra to list the matter for consideration tomorrow.
