@Saudabh:
If the apps are in control of VCS, why not use its intelligence of bringing apps down in appropriate order. Less chances of any errors. If you just freeze the SGs and issue bring the SGs offline manually, the state will reflect as faulted - no action taken by VCS, however may generate unwanted notifications if configured. Also as said earlier - it is ease of operation if you are not well verse with all the applications' start/stop logics.
@Marianne and Saurabh:
if the 'hastop -local' has resulted in fault of SG - there could be geneuine fault, or you had issued offline outside VCS control. There could be issue with SG config. Checking engine_A.log would certainly help.