Day on, suspect in Baddi shooting incident at large

Ambika Sharma

Solan, July 1

The rampant use of unauthorised weapons is pointing towards the deteriorating law and order situation in the Baddi industrial belt.

The manner in which a youth, Didar Singh, was openly fired at in Thana village last evening by his rival, Gurmeet Singh, during a cricket tournament has exposed the lack of fear of law among miscreants.

Two country-made pistols were used in the crime to fire at Didar, who had a narrow escape as the pistol which was pointed towards his head failed to fire, while a shot from the other one hit him in the right leg.

The assailant managed to flee on his motorcycle and was yet to be traced. He later sat in a car parked at a distance where three people were waiting for him.

It was learnt that Didar and Gurmeet harboured enmity owing to common interests in the mining and scrap business. A few months ago, Gurmeet Singh had fired in the air to intimidate Didar Singh. Baddi DSP Khajana Ram said efforts were afoot to trace the Gurmeet Singh.

The duo has animosity over the scrap and mining business and all angles were being probed, the police said.

With the byelection in the adjoining Assembly segment of Nalagarh, the use of firearms openly has brought the law and order situation in the area under scanner.

Raising a finger at the deteriorating law and order situation in the area, Doon MLA Ramkumar Chaudhary said the presence of unauthorised weapons in the area was worrisome and nothing had been done even as the police were informed months ago.

The DSP said a special campaign would be initiated soon to detect unautorised weapons in this industrial belt. A reserve force would be sought from the police headquarters and in-depth exercise would be undertaken in various slums and other pockets were migrants lived as they were found to be the major users of these unauthorised weapons.

State BJP president Dr Rajiv Bindal, while terming it a total breakdown of law and order machinery in the state said, “The Congress was patronising mining, scrap, heroin and liquor mafia and the Baddi incident is a fallout of the open patronage to the scrap mafia by the Congress leaders. There was no fear of law among the wrongdoers and only the common man feared the law.”