Liquor smugglers thrash two cops in Batala village

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Dera Baba Nanak (Batala), September 2

Suspected liquor smugglers gave a severe beating to two police constables at Haruwal village, 2 km from Dera Baba Nanak police station, falling under the jurisdiction of Batala police district, last night.

SSP Harpreet Singh, who had received a tip-off that some people were selling illicit liquor, had sent a team of six policemen led by ASI Jaswinder Singh to investigate the matter in Haruwal village. However, the suspects ambushed the policemen, who were 'outnumbered'. While four of the policemen were able to escape, the two constables were assaulted by the liquor smugglers.

While some people claimed the attackers had forced the policemen to remove their uniforms before beating them, the SSP denied that, saying they were wearing civilian clothes. The Batala police did not identify the two constables.

On receiving information regarding the attack, DSP (Dera Baba Nanak) Harpal Singh reached the village with reinforcement and managed to arrest three of the smugglers. A case was later registered against seven people. 

The SSP said: “Three of them have been arrested while four managed to flee under the cover of darkness. We have formed teams to trace the four, who will be arrested within 24 hours.” He identified the main suspect as Inder Singh, who was said to be among the ones who fled.

This was the second incident of policemen being assaulted in Batala in the past week. On August 27, two personnel, Manjinder Singh and Gurvinder Singh, were beaten up allegedly by Akali workers, who also tore their uniforms, inside Qila Lal Singh police station. IG (Border) Lok Nath Angra investigated that case, and asked the SSP to suspend SHO Avtar Singh for ‘dereliction of duty’. The Punjab State Human Rights Commission had also taken suo motu notice of the episode and asked the SSP to submit a report.

Dera Baba Nanak MLA Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who claimed he was the first to inform the Batala SSP regarding the “merciless beating" of the policemen by known liquor smugglers at Haruwal, said two such incidents in a week showed that “people who were paid by the government to provide security to the public were themselves in need of security”.