Rs 2.89-lakh liquor seized from DIG’s farmhouse, excise case registered

Harcharan Singh Bhullar, suspended DIG, Ropar Range, has now been booked under the Excise Act as the CBI seized 108 bottles of liquor worth Rs 2.89 lakh during a search at his farmhouse — Mehal Farms — at Bondli village in Samrala on October 16.

Samrala DSP Tarlochan Singh confirmed that an FIR had been registered at the Samrala police station on a statement of CBI Inspector Romipal.

The case was registered under Sections 61 (pertaining to unlawful activities such as possession or transport of intoxicants, 1 and 14 (which grants officers the power to summon individuals for evidence) of the Excise Act.

Besides the liquor, the CBI also seized 17 bullets, but charges under the Arms Act have not been added to the FIR as it is yet to be verified whether these belong to a licensed weapon or not. The value of the recovered liquor as mentioned in the FIR is Rs 2.89 lakh.

It is learnt that after the seizure, the CBI handed over the confiscated liquor to excise inspectors Vijay Kumar and Major Singh on Saturday in the presence of Samrala police officials.

Earlier, the CBI had unearthed papers related to over 50 properties, besides a staggering trail of cash, gold and luxury watches during searches on the premises of Bhullar and his associate middleman, Kirshanu Sharda.

The searches, carried out at multiple locations in Chandigarh and Punjab following their arrest on Thursday evening, led to the recovery of Rs 7.5 crore, 2.5 kg of gold jewellery, 26 luxury watches, including Rolex and Rado, firearms and documents related to more than 50 immovable properties allegedly held in the names of Bhullar’s family members and suspected benami entities. The CBI also seized locker keys and details of bank accounts.

From the residence of Sharda, an amount of Rs 21 lakh and several incriminating documents were recovered. According to the CBI’s case, registered under Section 61(2) of the BNS and Sections 7 and 7A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, DIG Bhullar had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 4 lakh and monthly illegal gratification through Sharda for “settling” an FIR registered against the complainant. The verification process revealed that the demand had later escalated to Rs 8 lakh.