New Delhi: Within a day of the killing of an official at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh who was monitoring the removal of encroachments, the Supreme Court on Wednesday took suo motu cognisance of the incident and called for a report from the state government. Expressing shock and describing it as an extremely serious issue, Chief Justice Dipak Misra, presiding over a three-judge bench, said: “We might stop passing any order if you (authorities) are going to kill people like this. The officer had gone there to implement our orders.”
When the counsel for the state government informed the court that the killer had fled the scene after shooting the official dead, the CJI observed: “What was the police doing? It is an extremely serious issue. The alleged killer, Vijay Singh, has committed contempt of court. A lot of people tried to violate our orders.”
The counsel said Vijay Singh had shot dead the officer, Shail Bala, and seriously injured another officer.
The National Green Tribunal had ordered the demolition of illegal structures at Kasauli as well as the removal of encroachments. The Supreme Court had upheld this order on April 17. A hotel owner had killed the official who was supervising the clearing operations. The bench has posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday.
