Four-member SIT constituted

Chandigarh, March 23

The Punjab Police today said the accused in the Sangrur hooch tragedy, in which 21 persons have lost their life, would have to face tough punishment.

Addressing mediapersons here today, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Law and Order Gurinder Singh Dhillon, who is heading the four-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed to probe this case said most of the equipment used to make illicit liquor has been seized. Only 50 bottles sold by the accused haven’t been traced yet.

The other members of the SIT are: DIG, Patiala Range, Harcharan Singh Bhullar; Sangrur SSP Sartaj Singh Chahal and Additional Commissioner (Excise) Naresh Dubey.

The ADGP said that the police have invoked Section 61-A of the Excise Act in all three FIRs. Section 61-A is punishable with imprisonment for life/death penalty, he added. “Anyone who has purchased these bottles should not consume those and should inform the police immediately,” said Dhillon.

He said investigation so far has found that methanol — a fatal chemical used in industrial products — was used to make liquor and it was procured by the accused persons from a Noida-based factory. The methanol was meant for factory use only.

The ADGP, accompanied by SSP Sangrur-cum-SIT member Sartaj Singh Chahal, said the police have arrested two masterminds— identified as Gurlal Singh of Ubhawal village in Sangrur and Harmanpreet Singh of Taipur village in Patiala — among the eight accused persons out of the total 10 accused nominated in this case so far after registering three separate FIRs at police stations Dirba, Sunam City and Cheema.

Both masterminds have criminal history and they became known to each other at Sangrur jail.

Other six arrested accused have been identified as Manpreet Singh alias Mani and Sukhwinder Singh alias Sukhi, both residents of Gujjran village in Dirba; Soma Kaur, Rahul alias Sanju and Pardeep Singh alias Babi, all residents of Chauwas in Cheema; and Arshdeep Singh alias Arsh of Rogla village.

Police teams have also seized from their possession 200 litres of methanol, empty liquor bottles, bottle caps and other equipment used for manufacturing and labelling spurious liquor.

Accused Harmanpreet, after procuring methanol from the Noida-based factory, was preparing spurious liquor at his home and selling it after packing it in liquor bottle after putting the label of liquor brand ‘Shahi’ written in Hindi. He prepared brand labels using a printer at home and had procured a bottle cap installation machine from Ludhiana.

He said that the masterminds were using a local contact, Manpreet Singh alias Mani, who has been arrested.