SDM, DSP visit Khasa distillery

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 10

A day after the Punjab Government and the DGP asked administrative and senior police officials of the districts to check the stock of the distilleries falling in their areas, Sub-Divisional Magistrate Shiv Raj Bal along with Attari DSP Gurpartap Singh Sahota on Monday visited the Khasa distillery and checked the stock.

They also sought the details of the employees working in the distillery. According to information, the Khasa distillery turned into just a bottling plant several years ago.

According to information, the team checked the registers and record of liquor coming and going out of the distillery. They also took information about different products manufactured there.

Following the hooch tragedy that claimed over 100 lives in three districts of Majha region (Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Batala), the Punjab Government has tightened the noose around bootleggers and arrested a large number of them, besides seizing illicit liquor and lahan. They have also seized extra neutral alcohol (ENA) which is primary raw material for liquor of different degrees.

Investigations into the tragedy revealed that ENA was being pilfered from tankers at eating joints on main GT Roads. Besides, methyl alcohol was also being used for making spurious liquor which is highly poisonous. It has methylated alcohol that led to a high number of casualties in the three districts within four days. The Punjab Police launched a crackdown on bootleggers after this.

In the past nine days, the Amritsar rural police have registered as many as 220 cases and arrested 87 bootleggers in this connection. It confiscated 2,388 litres of illicit liquor, nine running illegal stills and 344 litres of spirit, besides 10,126 kg of lahan during raids in different villages.

According to information, the police have also launched drone surveillance of 11 places under the supervision of DSP (Narcotics) Kailash Chander.