Making it clear that he would not tolerate any political interference in the hooch tragedy case, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday directed the state Director General of Police (DGP) to book those directly involved for “murder” under section 302 of the Indian penal Code (IPC).
Promising justice for the victims of “the biggest tragedy of recent times”, the Chief Minister also mooted enhancement of punishment for spurious or illicit liquor manufacturing and smuggling under the Excise Act to ensure that “repeat offenders remain behind the bars and are not able to come out easily to indulge again in the crime”.
The Chief Minister’s directives on the hooch tragedy came during two separate video conferences — one of the Cabinet meeting and the other a review meeting of the case with top police and administrative officials.
Capt Amarinder also led the Council of Ministers in observing a two-minute silence as a mark of homage to the victims of the tragedy.
“Finish off this business, clean up the border areas,” directed Capt Amarinder to the police and district officials during the review videoconference earlier, attended by DGP Dinkar Gupta and Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan, along with Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) and Deputy Commissioners (DCs) of the affected districts of Tarn Taran, Amritsar Rural and Gurdaspur, along with officials of the Excise and Taxation Department.
“This has to stop,” he said, adding that the illicit liquor business had been going on in border areas for a long time, with use of Lahan, but now it had assumed an even more dangerous proportion with the new trend of smuggling from neighbouring states.
Asserting that he wanted “to see an end to this whole business of spurious and illicit or smuggled liquor”, the Chief Minister directed the concerned officials to be extremely strict in dealing with the criminals, whether men or women.
Pointing out that the victims were the poorest of the poor, Capt Amarinder set a 10-day deadline for the concerned DCs and police officers to identify and process cases to provide targeted additional relief for their families.
Tarn Taran DC Kulwant Singh said that his district had reported 84 deaths, with 13 people under treatment. Of these 13, six had been referred to Amritsar for eye treatment, while one was critical, he said. On relief measures, he said that disbursement of Rs two lakh ex-gratia compensation for the families of the deceased would be disbursed on Thursday as verification had been completed and processing would be done in the next 24 hours.
Amritsar DC Gurpreet Khaira said that 15 deaths had been reported in the district, where all efforts were being made to provide immediate relief to the families. Gurdaspur DC Mohd Ishfaq said that ration kits had been provided to the affected people and a drive had been launched to create awareness about consumption of liquor, with instructions to destroy any illicit liquor lying with them.
IG Border Range SPS Parmar, in a brief presentation, said that cases had been registered under Section 304 IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and the Excise Act, and a coordinated crackdown had been launched in all border areas to identify and nab the criminals and initiate strict action against them under the law. Parmar revealed that initially, the families of the victims in Tarn Taran, which had suffered the maximum loss of lives, hid the deaths and cremated the bodies without post-mortem. He suggested introduction of colour-coding for ethanol and other spirits to check illegal sale or distribution of such products.
Capt for early PCOCA enactment
Hanging fire since 2016, Punjab Control of Organized Crime Act (PCOCA) may soon see the light of the day with Chief Minister Capt Amarinder asking the Cabinet Sub-Committee, set up under Local Government Minister Brahm Mohindra in November 2017, to examine the provisions of the proposed law, to finalize, and submit its report at the earliest. The directives came during the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday via video-conferencing after several Ministers agreed to the suggestion of the state Advocate-General Atul Nanda that a strict law like PCOCA was needed to combat organized crime like illicit liquor smuggling.
The Chief Minister agreed with his Cabinet colleague Sukhjinder Randhawa and other Ministers that PCOCA could help control hardcore criminals and act as deterrent to gangsters, who continue to deal in organized crime even from prison, and had close connections with terrorists too.
PCOCA, an improved version of the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act, was initially introduced by the erstwhile SAD-BJP government by the then DGP Suresh Arora in 2016 when the state was facing problems owing to gangsters.
The then Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, who was also the Home Minister, had tabled the draft Act in the Cabinet in July 2016, but a majority of Cabinet Ministers had opposed it as Punjab was going to Assembly polls in February 2017 and fears of its misuse for political vendetta were expressed. Later, soon after taking over, Capt Amarinder had made it clear that his Government would be enacting the law, but it was put on backburner owing to the same reasons.
DGP SETS UP 2 SITs, UNDER ADGP (LAW AND ORDER), TO FAST-TRACK HOOCH TRAGEDY FIRs
To fast-track investigations in all the FIRs registered in the hooch tragedy, Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta on Wednesday ordered constitution of two Special Investigation Teams (SITs), to be supervised by ADGP (Law and Order) Ishwar Singh. The Punjab Police has registered a total of five FIRs — three in Tarn Taran, and one each in Amritsar Rural and Batala, in the case.
“SP-level officers have, for the first time, been nominated as Investigating Officers (IOs) for these cases to ensure conviction of the offenders,” said the DGP, adding that the IOs have been directed to ensure thorough and comprehensive investigations to unravel the entire backward and forward linkages both inside and outside the State of Punjab under the supervision of the SIT. IOs shall also be responsible for filing Final Report(s) in the concerned courts under their own signatures expeditiously, said the DGP.
While DIG, Ferozepur Range, Ferozepur, Hardial Singh Mann will head the SIT for investigating FIRs registered in Tarn Taran, IG Border Range Amritsar Surinder Pal Singh Parmar would be leading the SIT investigating the FIRs registered in Amritsar and Batala. The other members of the Taran Taran SIT are SSP Tarn Taran, Dhruman Nimbale, along with SP (Investigation) Tarn Taran, Jagjit Singh Walia, who has been nominated as Investigating Officer.