Cops recover 900 liquor cartons from truck

Khanna: Police have confiscated a truck carrying 900 boxes of illegal liquor being brought in from Arunachal Pradesh. Police suspect the consignment was sent for distribution during the upcoming Zila Parishad and Block Samiti elections, slated for September 19.
Police said following a tip-off, a checkpost was set up at Chawa Road T-point on Thursday.During checking, cops found boxes carrying country and foreign-made liquor from a truck bearing registration number HR-37-C-8946. The police arrested two persons — identified as Joginder Singh (35) of Peher Kalan in Rajpura, and Gurjant Singh (30) of Shamshpur in Patiala — along with the consignment. Further questioning revealed the accused were carrying illicit liquor from Shambu (close to Haryana’s border) to Hoshiarpur. The boxes have markings ‘For sale in Arunachal Pradesh’.
Police said it was a rare instance in which liquor from a state as far as Arunachal Pradesh had been recovered. Till now, the recoveries had largely been of liquor made and illegally supplied in the state. Samrala DSP Harsimrat Singh said: “This is perhaps the first time we have recovered liquor meant for sale in Arunachal Pradesh. Investigations are still on.”
With Zila Parishad and Block Samiti elections round the corner, cops suspect the confiscated liquor was meant to be distributed in rural areas during the elections. Khanna SSP Dhruv Dahiya said it was during the anti-drug campaign that police received a tip-off about the illegal consignment. Police have registered a case under the Excise Act at Samrala police station, and further investigations are on.