The death of an 18-year-old man, whose body was found near the Hamirpur bus stand, evoked angry protests alleging murder and BJP activists staged Dharna on Shimla-Hamirpur-Dharamsala highway for more than 8 hours, causing great inconvenience to commuters.
The BJP workers, who were later joined by leader of the opposition P K Dhumal and party MLA from Sujanpur Narinder Thakur, lifted the Dharna after eight hours on the assurance of the Deputy commissioner, Rohan Chand Thakur that the culprits would be identified soon and arrested.
"There is no evidence so far of the accused being named by the family members of deceased Rakesh Kumar and it is yet to be confirmed whether he was hit by the car of the alleged accused," the Deputy commissioner said adding that even in CCTV cameras, the vehicle is not clearly visible.
He said that all possible efforts are being made to apprehend the culprits and the guilty would be punished and persuaded the relatives of the youth to lift the Dharna.
The body of Rakesh, badly crushed by some vehicle was found near the bus stand this morning and as soon as the news spread, the locals started gathering at the spot and sat on Dharna which got instant support from the BJP workers.
The relatives of the deceased alleged that Rakesh was hit by the car of son of a former Congress MLA and accused the police of not acting against the culprit.
The body was taken to local civil hospital for post mortem and later handed over to the family members.
The BJP activists led by Dhumal and Narendra Thakur, sat on dharna at the main road, demanding a high level probe into the death of the boy.
They said that it was a clear cut case of killing (murder) and the authorities were taking no action as the Chief minister, V B Singh was in the town.
When contacted, Chief Minister said that he had come to know about the death of a youngman at the Hamirpur bus stand.
"The police was on job to find out the cause of the death and if it was a murder, the culprit would be nabbed soon," he added.
The CM said that since police was doing its duty, the truth would come out as soon as possible.
