Greiving relatives of Shail Bala Thursday. Pradeep Kumar
In Barin, the 1000-strong village of Sarkaghat area in Mandi district, there is still anger and disbelief over the death of Shail Bala, the Assistant Town Planner, Kasauli. Her husband Dr V D Sharma belonged to this village.
There were cries and tears in the narrow street leading to their house in the heart of the village the moment her body arrived on Wednesday.
Shail Bala’s 83-year-old father, J D Sharma, said his daughter was ‘fearless and unrelenting’ in duty. Sharma is a retired principal of government school. “My daughter has taken a bullet in her chest .The bullet pierced through her back. If she had been shot in her back, I would have declared her a coward. Today, I stand up on my feet to tell everyone, around me here, that she is a martyr. My daughter was sherni (lioness). She died fighting a very powerful lobby (builders),” he declared. “There was no personal agenda behind her actions,” said a grieving relative. Madan Kant, Shail Bala’s brother, who is DSP posted in Mandi, said: “The family is not in a position to say anything as to whose fault or failure it was. I have lost my only sister, who fell to the bullet of some man, who thereafter managed to flee. “The accused was arrested on Thursday.
Kant recalled Shail Bala as an adorable sister for three brothers and best child at home in her early days. She studied in her native village and later did architecture degree from Chandigarh. She got a job in Baddi-Brotiwala Development Authority (BBNDA), and thereafter came to Solan on deputation to TCP. Villages, who turned up in large numbers to pay their respects, expressed anger against superior officers and demanded to know what was the police doing. “It was not LoC firing that the killers were on the other side of the border. Our daughter paid with her life to enforce Supreme Court orders,” said an aged woman. The villagers also demanded an inquiry into firing and said that responsibility should be fixed for the lapses. It was a complete failure of the law enforcement machinery, P D Sharma, a villager and retired college lecturer, alleged.
Piyush Sharma, Shail Bala’s son, who performed her last rites, said his mother was a victim of collective negligence of the police and administration. “All these illegal buildings did not come overnight. Who were the officials who failed to enforce laws. My mother was a brave officer. She never shirked responsibility. So, she died doing her duty,” he said.