9,100 ltr lahan, 210 ltr illicit liquor seized in police raid

Amritsar, August 11

The Amritsar Rural Police confiscated a huge quantity of country-made illicit liquor, besides lahan (raw material for preparing illicit liquor) during a Cordon And Search Operation (CASO) here on Friday.

During the operation the police also seized two working indigenous and illegal stills. It has registered two separate cases against two bootleggers one of which was arrested while other managed to abscond. The search operation was carried out under the supervision of Gurpartap Singh Sahota, Superintendent of Police (PBI).

First operation was carried out at Manawala village where the police arrested Sukhjinder Singh aiias Sukh and recovered 280 bottles containing 210 litres of country made illicit liquor besides 9100 litre of Lahan and a running illegal distillery unit from his house. The police have registered a case under Excise act against him at Lopoke police station here.

During the operation the police seized 20 litres of Lahan and a running illegal still from the residence of Balraj Singh in Sodia Mohammad village. The police said Balraj Singh had absconded from the village while a case under Excise act was registered against him and efforts were on to nab him.

Lopoke area has been infamous of the bootlegging and manufacturing of illicit liquor. In March 2021 Punjab police and Excise and taxation department in a joint operation had seized 1lakh kg of Lahan (raw material mixed for distillation of illicit liquor) along with 1780 litres of country made illicit liquor from Khiala Kalan village under Lopoke police station.

Similarly, in May 2021 another major haul of illicit liquor was made. The police had busted eight illegal working stills and had nabbed five bootleggers from Boparai Khurd village falling under same police station. During the raid the police had seized 1.18kg lakh kg of Lahan along with 390 litres of illicit liquor.

Sahota said that such operations would be continued in the rural belt especially those who had been infamous of illegal trade.