Raiding excise team attacked in Moga

Tribune News Service

Moga, August 5

A team of the Excise and Taxation Department was allegedly attacked by liquor smugglers when it raided a makeshift room in a paddy field suspecting sale of illicit liquor at Mahla Kalan village in Baghapurana subdivision of the district.

Inspector Balkaran Singh of the Excise and Taxation Department was accompanied by Gursewak Singh and Inderjit Singh, both liquor contractors, and their employees besides some police personnel, when he conducted the raid late last night.

The excise official, in a statement recorded with the police, said he seized a drum containing 200 litre lahan from the spot and loaded it on a vehicle, but suddenly, the smugglers and their associates attacked them with sharp-edged weapons and sticks. They forcibly spilled the lahan in a bid to destroy the evidence. Balkaran Singh said no one was injured in the incident.

A criminal case under Sections 323, 341, 506, 186, 353, 148 and 149 of the IPC and Sections 61, 1 and 14 of the Excise Act has been registered at the Baghapurana police station against Lakhbir Singh and his associates Deepa Ghali, Gurwinder Singh and Happy, all residents of Mahla Kalan village along with 10-12 unidentified persons.