1 injured in attack on Excise Dept officials

A member of a team of officials of the Excise Department, supported by workers of wine contractors, was attacked and left injured by miscreants involved in manufacturing illicit liquor in Mand area under Harike here on Friday.

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Excise Inspector Hitesh Prabhakar, who was leading the team, in his statement to the Harike police said that they were conducting a search in the mand area at Mard village when they recovered 2,300 litres of lahan stored in a plastic tarpaulin, which was destroyed on the spot.

The Excise Inspector told the police that the accused, identified as Bhupinder Singh, had allegedly been running the illegal business of illicit liquor. Bhupinder Singh Bhinda of Mard village on seeing a raiding party managed to escape from the spot. When members of the team tried to chase Bhupinder Singh, eight supporters of Bhupinder attacked the raiding party and Gurbhej Singh, a member of the party, received a head injury.

He was admitted to a hospital. ASI Sukhdev Singh of the Harike police said a case under Sections 132, 221, 118 (1), 191 (3), 190 of the BNS and Sections 61, 1 and 14 of the Excise Act. All the accused managed to flee the spot.

Meanwhile, the Verowal police, the Kacha Pakka police and the Khalra police conducted raids in areas under their jurisdiction and recovered 270 ltrs of lahan and 22,500 ml of illicit liquor. The police managed to arrest two of the accused, but three fled the spot. Cases have been registered under relevant sections of the BNS and the Excise Act.