Bath Castle firing case: Police allow only pre-booked weddings for now

Taking strict action against the Bath Castle marriage palace located on Pakhowal road, where clash between two notorious groups had cost the lives of two innocent guests — Vasu Chopra and Neeru Chhabra, the Ludhiana police have stopped any future bookings for holding weddings at the palace for glaring violations. According to sources, eight persons have been arrested so far.

Confirming this, Police Commissioner, Ludhiana, Swapan Sharma said that action was taken after the tragic incident happened inside the palace. The management failed to ensure compliance of orders of police administration that arms should not be allowed at wedding venues. The security guards deployed at the palace failed to prevent the entry of guests carrying arms and as a consequence, gunshots were exchanged between the two groups, which led to the death of the two guests.

“The police have categorically told Bath Castle management that they could only allow pre-booked weddings functions, while no new booking should be made. They should first implement all security norms in the palace and install frisking machines, so that guests could not carry weapons inside the palace,” added Sharma.

Asked if the police has written to the state government for the cancellation of the licence of the palace, the Commissioner replied that as of now the police had not recommended cancellation of licence, but in the future, it might recommend cancellation as investigation was still going on.

Meanwhile, sources said the police had already arrested eight accused in the clash case, while the main accused, gangster Shubham Mota, who was being considered the key accused, is still at large. It is learnt that Shubham enjoys close proximity with some senior politicians and was also quite often seen posing with them and other prominent persons of the city. Unconfirmed reports say that some politicians may play middleman in ensuring safe surrender of Shubham before the police.