SC takes cognizance of Kasauli firing incident that killed govt official

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today took cognizance on its own of the firing incident in Kasauli where a woman government official was shot dead allegedly by a hotel owner after she had gone to seal an unauthorised construction in his property on apex courts direction.

A bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta termed the incident as extremely serious and noted that government officials had gone there to comply with the courts direction to seal unauthorised constructions.

Assistant Town and Country Planner Shailbala Sharma had yesterday gone to seal unauthorised constructions in Kasaulis Narayani guest house where its owner Vijay Singh allegedly shot at her. She later succumbed to injuries.

“We might stop passing any orders if you are going to kill people,” the bench observed after the issue was mentioned before it. The bench, while taking suo motu cognizance of the incident, said the matter be placed before Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra for assigning it before an appropriate bench tomorrow.

The apex court also questioned as to what the police team, which had accompanied government officials during the sealing drive was doing when the hotel owner allegedly shot at the woman

The counsel representing Himachal Pradesh informed the bench that the accused had fled from the spot after opening fire at government officials and besides the deceased, an official of the Public Works Department was also injured in the incident.