Woman drug officer shot in Kharar office; assailant dies of own bullet

Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 29

Jobless after his chemist shop was raided and licence cancelled following recovery of intoxicants more than 10 years ago, a man on Friday walked into the office of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at Kharar near here and shot dead Zonal Licencing Authority Neha Shoree.

The assailant, who was in his late 40s or early 50s and wearing a red-coloured jacket, fired four bullets at the 38-year-old woman officer, two of which hit her.

After the shootout, the man ran out of the building and tried to escape on his motorcycle, which was parked outside.

However, Suresh Kumar, a laboratory attendant in the office, chased him and caught hold of the assailant when he was about to start his motorbike.

The assailant first tried to shoot at Suresh, but when he fell on the road due to dragging behind of his motorcycle by the latter, he ended up firing at himself.

Shocked and dismayed colleagues rushed Neha to civil hospital, Kharar, from where she was shifted to a private hospital.

From there, she was shifted to PGIMER, but she died on the way.

The victim’s 4-year-old niece was sitting with her when the assailant shot at her at about 11.30 am in the morning.

The little girl was in complete shock and was unable to understand what had happened.

The victim’s colleagues said that her niece had come to the office with her for the first time today, as she was to drop her somewhere.

The assailant was also shifted to PGIMER, where he succumbed to his injuries.

The entire episode happened within a span of few minutes and many in the office could not even understand what happened.

The victim’s colleagues took care of the little girl before her family members could reach there.

The assailant was later identified as Balwinder Singh of Morinda who had a shop there, which was closed due to cancellation of licence following recovery of huge cache of intoxicants during a raid by the victim officer some ten years ago.

Pradeep Matoo, State Drug Controller, said, “Balwinder Singh got a licence in 2005 which was valid till 2010. His shop was located in Morinda. Neha as drug inspector in Ropar raided his shop in 2008 where habit forming drugs were recovered from his shop. His licence was cancelled at that time and he had left the shop.”

SHO of Kharar City police station Bhagwant Singh Riar said the police have registered a case under Section 302 of the IPC and under the Arms Act against the accused as per statement recorded by Gurmit Singh who was working as a computer operator and was sitting with the deceased in her office.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has directed DGP to ensure speedy probe into the killing.

Neha Shoree was married to Varun Monga and had a daughter. The family lived in Panchkula.