In Punjab's Kharar, a senior health official was on Friday shot dead at point-blank range at her office by a man. The alleged later shot himself too, police said.
In Kharar’s Drug and Food Chemical Laboratory, the official, Neha Shorie, was posted. She was dealing with licensing in Mohali and Ropar districts, cops said.
At around 11:30 am, the accused, Balwinder Singh of Morinda, entered her office and fired three bullets from his licensed revolver.
After firing bullets, Singh tried to flee the spot. However, he was caught.
By pointing his revolver towards them, he initially tried to threaten those who had caught hold of him but when he found trapped, he fired at himself, cops informed.
At PGIMER at Chandigarh, Singh is undergoing treatment and is in a critical state, police said and added, “a case of murder was registered and a probe initiated.”
What preliminary investigation says:
Preliminary investigations revealed that the accused was running a chemist shop in Morinda and in 2009, Shorie, who was then posted as District Drugs Inspector in Ropar, had raided his store and had reportedly recovered intoxicant drugs from there, following which she had cancelled his drugs licence.
Though the motive of the cold-blooded murder was not yet confirmed, it is believed that the accused was nursing a grudge against the woman health officer since his drugs licence was cancelled.
The accused had got the new arms license of a .32 bore revolver a couple of months back. Even as the model code of conduct imposed for the Lok Sabha polls since March 11 required every licensed weapon to be deposited with the police station concerned, he was still possessing his arms, which he used to commit the crime.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has directed Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta to ensure speedy probe into the killing of Shorie.
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(With PTI inputs)
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