HC notice to Chief Secretary, DGP on Manikaran incident
Vijay Arora
Shimla, March 10
Expressing concern on the issue of ruckus created by tourists at Manali, Manikaran and Bilaspur, the HP High Court today issued notice to Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary (Home), Director General of Police, Deputy Commissioners and Superintendent of Police of Kullu and Bilaspur.
The court passed this order on the news items published in various newspapers, including The Tribune, on March 7.
SIT constituted to probe case
- A special investigation team (SIT) has been formed by DGP Sanjay Kundu to probe the incident that occurred at Manikaran in Kullu district on March 5
- A case under Sections 147, 148, 149 and 427, IPC, and Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act has been registered at the Kullu police station
- It will carry out an impartial probe expeditiously to ensure transparency and update the police HQs with regard to the progress of investigation periodically, states the order
Taking cognisance, the court treated these news items as Public Interest Litigation. A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Sabina and Justice Satyen Vaidya has directed the state authorities to file status report in this regard and listed the matter for March 13.
As per news items, it was reported that the tourists from Punjab created ruckus at Manali’s green tax barrier on Sunday afternoon. They got into an altercation with the workers for not paying green tax. Within no time around 100 motorcyclists gathered on the road. They started raising slogans and made the atmospheres tense.
The tourists then went on a rampage. A riot-like situation was witnessed at Manikaran on the night of March 6 as over 100 miscreants from Punjab joined and created ruckus. Some of them consumed alcohol and hurled beer bottles towards the Naina Mata temple and on the road. As local residents intervened, they went on a rampage and vandalised temples, houses and vehicles with iron rods and sticks. They thrashed everyone they saw on the way and created an atmosphere of panic.
On being countered by a local boy, they hit him on the head with a beer bottle. They entered into an eatery forcibly and misbehaved with those present there. Five persons sustained injuries.
