Harcharan Singh Bhullar IPS, DIG, Patiala Range, Patiala conveyed through a press release that under the supervision of Jatinder Jorwal IAS, DC, Sangrur and Sh. Sartaj Singh Chahal, IPS, SSP, Sangrur, district Police Sangrur took swift action and effectively busted a gang that had recently started selling spurious liquor in the areas of Police Station Dirba, Police Station City Sunam and Police Station Cheema and have arrested 10 accused persons of the gang involved in this illegal trade with a huge recovery of spurious liquor and other equipments used for manufacturing and labelling spurious liquor.
Sh. Harcharan Singh Bhullar IPS, DIG, Patiala Range, Patiala, informed that on 20.03.2024, Sangrur Police received an information regarding the incident from village Gujjran (Police Station Dirba). Immediately after receiving the information, Police teams reached the spot, investigated the matter thoroughly and lodged an FIR no. 25 dated 20.03.2024 u/s 302, 34 IPC and 61/01/14 Excise Act Police Station Dirba against Manpreet Singh @ Mani s/o Amrik Singh and Sukhwinder Singh @ Sukhi s/o Avtar Singh, both residents of village Gujjran (Police Station Dirba).
During investigation in the above matter, the accused Manpreet Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Gurlal Singh s/o Mewa Singh r/o Ubhawal and mastermind behind the entire episode Harmanpreet Singh s/o Kuldeep Singh r/o village Taipur, Tehsil Patran, district Patiala were arrested shortly thereafter with the recovery of a huge amount of spurious liquor and other equipments used for the manufacturing of this spurious liquor.
On 22.03.2024, information was received at Police Station City Sunam and Police Station Cheema that some people in their respective jurisdiction had also fallen ill by consuming the spurious liquor and were admitted to the hospital for treatment. Immediately on receiving the information, the Police team reached the spot and investigated the entire matter.
On investigation, it was found that this incident had also happened due to the consumption of the same spurious liquor that had led to the causalities in the area of Police Station Dirba on 20.03.2024 as some consignment of the same spurious liquor had also reached these areas.
For unearthing this illegal trade and reaching the roots of the menace, on 22.03.2024, Sangrur Police lodged two more FIRs:
FIR no. 18 dated 22.03.2024 u/s 302, 120-B IPC and 61-A Excise Act, Police Station Cheema, Sangrur against 7 persons.
FIR no. 44 dated 22.03.2024 u/s 302, 34 IPC and 61-A Excise Act Police Station City Sunam, Sangrur against 6 persons.
Taking swift action, police teams were sent to different locations to arrest the accused persons. And due to the prompt action, Police were able to apprehend most of the accused persons involved in this incident. Two more accused persons arrested taking the total count of arrested persons to 10. Mangal s/o channa Ram r/o Tibbi Ravidaspura, Sunam Veeru Saini s/o late Punnu Saini r/o ward no.3 Sunam
During investigation it has been found that Veeru Saini above bought the 4 boxes of spurious liquor from Soma Kaur (accused already arrested) and sold two boxes to Mangal Singh and sold other two boxes to the common people in the area.
Further Mangal Singh sold the above two boxes of spurious liquor to the common people in the area of Tibbi Ravidaspura, Sunam. From the interrogation of the arrested persons, Police have been able to count for the whole spurious liquor consignment that was manufactured by mastermind Harmanpreet Singh and sold to his various associates thereof.
Additionally, a Special Investigation team has also been constituted to investigate criminal cases pertaining to this entire incident in district Sangrur. The SIT will be headed by an ADGP rank officer as well as other officers.
Sangrur Police achieved major success by arresting the mastermind Harmanpreet Singh and his associates involved behind the incident and thereby busted the whole network involved in this crime.
The efforts of Sangrur police have also saved the lives of many innocent residents who would have fallen prey to the consumption of the spurious liquor, had the case not been worked out at such a swift pace and the masterminds not been arrested.
As per the record, the following FIRs have already been registered against the accused persons:-
Veeru Saini s/o late Punnu Saini r/o ward no.3 Sunam
S.No
Case Detail
1. FIR no. 246 dated 2.11.2022 u/s 61/01/14 Excise Act PS City Sunam
2. FIR no. 271 dated 22.11.2022 u/s 30/54/59 Arms Act and 188 IPC PS City Sunam