A day after the Excise Department in Rajpura of Patiala district busted illegal liquor bottling unit, the Punjab Police on Wednesday suspended a Station House Officer (SHO) from Rajpura police station for laxity. At the same time, notices were issued to Superintendent of Police (Detective), Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajpura, DSP (Detective) and Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) in-charge.
In a late-night raid, the police unearthed an illegal liquor factory finding 20,000 litres of ENA, holograms, bottles, caps, labels being used to fill the liquor under the name of country-made liquor brands.
Taking a serious cognizance of the “police laxity”, Patiala Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Vikram Jeet Duggal on Wednesday said that there was a zero-tolerance policy towards spurious liquor and no police officer would be spared in Patiala district for showing leniency in dealing with crime control in the district.
The development comes four months after a shocking hooch tragedy incident, that claimed around 113 lives, shook the state.
The excise officials said that a tanker of Extra Neutral Thanol (20,000 litres), 43 cases of illegal Country Made Liquor (with labeling to Punjab Rasila Santra), labels, corks and sealing machine has been recovered from the manufacturing unit-cum-godown.
In the raid, two persons — Rajpura-resident Dipesh Grover, and Shamaspur-resident Karaj Singh — were arrested. A tank, having distilled illegal liquor, was also recovered.
The Rajpura city police has booked four persons —Dipesh Kumar Grover (arrested), Karaj Singh (arrested), Hardeep Singh and Gurpreet Singh and some others unidentified under sections 420, 465, 468, 471 of the Indian Penal Code and sections 61, 78 (2)/1/14 of Excise Act.
Dipesh was out on bail for his alleged involvement in operating another illegal liquor manufacturing unit that was busted in Ghanour block of Patiala in May this year. He was the kingpin of an illegal liquor factory busted at Shambu in Patiala district, said the police official.