Haryana Police in the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday arrested former MLA Satvinder Rana from the MLA hostel, Sector-3, Chandigarh for his alleged role in the theft of liquor from a sealed godown in Samalkha in Panipat district.
Rana, a two-time legislator from Rajound constituency in Kaithal district, had unsuccessfully contested Assembly election 2019 from Kalayat constituency on Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) ticket.
A crime team of Panipat police, under the supervision of DSP (Crime) Rajesh Phogat, nabbed the former MLA from Chandigarh. The team had informed the Sector 3 police in Chandigarh about their raid.
Talking to the Pioneer over the phone, Panipat DSP (Crime) Rajesh Phogat said that the Rana was produced before the magistrate in the court, Samalkha on Thursday evening. During the hearing, the police had sought for police custody as they wanted to question him further in the case. Court granted his two-day custody to the police, he added.
Police source said that around half dozen persons were arrested on charges of theft of liquor from a sealed godown in Samalkha in Panipat district. The liquor kept inside the godown was stolen and Rana’s role was found in it. Liquor godown was sealed by the Excise Department in 2016. A case of theft at the godown was registered last month.
The arrest of the ex-legislator comes close on the heels of the Haryana government setting up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the alleged theft of seized liquor from two godowns in Sonipat district.
Besides the two godowns in Sonipat, the SIT will check the actual availability of stock in all warehouses and godowns that were sealed by the excise department in the last two years for any violation, which means that the SIT will check whether the stock of liquor which was there on the date of sealing is actually the same or not.
It will also collect and collate the result of investigation of the FIRs registered from March 15 till April 10 in different parts of the state for pilferage of liquor from godowns and also from malkhanas (strong rooms) of police stations.
The Haryana Police had last week seized Rs 97 lakh in cash, two pistols and three mobile phones besides a sports utility vehicle following a raid in a house to nab the prime accused in the case of missing liquor stocks from the two godowns in Sonipat. The Sonipat police raided the house of accused Bhupinder Singh, but he managed to escape, said officials. However, later on, he surrendered before the police. The godowns in Sonipat from where the liquor stock was reported missing were stated to belong to accused Bhupinder Singh's wife.