Himachal Pradesh ex-CM Jairam Thakur not allowed to entry Chamba’s Salooni; demands NIA probe into murder

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, June 16

Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Jairam Thakur was on Friday not allowed to enter the Salooni area of Chamba where a mob on Thursday burned down a house of an alleged murder accused.

Jairam Thakur was stopped by the police on the border of Salooni subdivision were Section 144 of the CrPC has been imposed by the local administration.

Jairam Thakur when contacted on phone said that he and his colleagues were stopped near Chowrah Dam and not allowed to proceed to Salooni. “We sat on a dharna at the spot for some time. After sitting on dharna for an hour, we came back as the government did not allow us to proceed further,” he said, adding that, “in such a situation Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu or any of his Cabinet colleagues should have visited the area”.

Former CM said that the BJP was sticking to its demand of NIA probe as alleged financial transactions in an account of one of the accused in the murder case have raised many doubts.

DIG Kangra Range, Abhishek Dullar, said that a crowd of about 1,000 people gathered in Bhandal village and burned down the house of the accused. All the family members and other people associated with the accused in murder cases were evacuated by the police. The police have arrested about 10 people were involved in burning of house of accused, he said.

Communal tensions erupted in Salooni area of Chamba district after murder of a youth, Manohar. The body of 25-year-old, who was residence of Bhandal village, was recovered on June 9 from the forest area in Salooni area.

Sources said Manohar was killed and his body was disposed off in a sewer in forest area.

Since the murder, the issue was flared up on social media that led to communal tensions, which culminated in burning of the house of accused.

The brutal murder had evoked strong reaction from the people.