Liquor vends flout night curfew orders in Ludhiana

Nikhil Bhardwaj
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, April 21

Liquor vends were found open in some areas in the city during the night curfew, which starts at 8 pm.

This Tribune correspondent along with photographer conducted a reality check on Tuesday night. It was observed that more than 90 per cent shops and other commercial establishments were lying closed following the night curfew norms. The only shops found open were liquor vends in some city areas.

A number of booze lovers were noticed at some liquor vends, where employees of liquor contractors were openly selling liquor during night curfew.

At around 9.15 pm, liquor vend Param Wines and Sharma Brothers at Wadi Chandar Nagar Pulli was open. At this vend, the shutter was down but liquor was being sold through the holes made in the shutter.

A liquor vend near the Police Lines, Ludhiana, was also seen selling liquor.

Malik Wines at Jawala Singh Chowk, near the Jagatpuri Police Post, was also seen selling liquor. The entire market around the vend was lying closed. The vend had also not closed shutter, despite its location near the police post.

Similarly, liquor vends at Laxmi Nagar, Dugri, Gill Road, Samrala Chowk, Civil Hospital road, etc, were also seen flouting curfew norms.

Only two FIRs against liquor vends

On Tuesday, the Ludhiana police registered only two FIRs against liquor vends that were found opened. The police registered cases against only employees of liquor vends and not the contractors.

The first case was registered against unknown employees of Shiv Wine Shop at Basti Jodhewal. Another case was registered against an employee of Param Wines at Salem Tabri. Including these two cases, the police registered total 40 cases against 50 persons for curfew violations.

Basant Ice-Cream owner booked for violating curfew

After Tribune report, the Ludhiana police registered an FIR against the owner of Basant Ice-Cream at Fountain Chowk. On March 27, The Tribune had carried a special report that the ice-cream parlour, which is owned by a ruling party leader, paid scant regard to the night curfew orders. On April 17, the police registered a case under Section 188 of the IPC.

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