SAD demands action against Cong MLAs patronising spurious liquor trade

Chandigarh- The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today demanded immediate action against Congress legislators responsible for patronising spurious liquor trade which led to nearly 100 deaths even it demanded registration of a murder case against former Tarn Taran SSP Dhruv Dahiya and registration of appropriate cases against distillery owners supplying unaccounted ENA to bootleggers. It also demanded that murder charges should be registered against all those responsible for the man made tragedy for which it asserted chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh was directly responsible. It also asked the chief minister to own moral responsibility for the hooch tragedy as the excise and home minister and step down from his chair. Addressing a press conference here, former minister Bikram Singh Majithia said Congress legislators, police officials and liquor mafia were responsible for the hooch tragedy and action should be taken against all three instead of targeting low level officials only. He also demanded that former SSP Tarn Taran Dhruv Dahiya who has been shifted to Amritsar Rural after the tragedy, should be booked for murder.  He said many people of the area had approached the SSP and complained about the bootleggers and their Congress king pins. “Even registration numbers of cars and scooters used to ferry illicit liquor were sent to him besides the telephone numbers of the couriers and smugglers. Despite this the SSP turned a blind eye to the entire racket. He should therefore be booked under section 302 IPC”. While rejecting the magisterial probe ordered by the chief minister, Mr Majithia said a sitting judge of the high court or a CBI inquiry should be marked into the entire incident. “We have been seen the result of the magisterial inquiry marked into the Dussehra tragedy”, he said while demanding that the inquiry also take into account the role of distilleries including that of the family of the CM’s Religious Advisor Paramjit Singh Sarna who had been given a long rope even after seizure of a truck load of illicit liquor from his family’s sugar mill. He said there were assertions from victim families that  unaccounted Extra Neutral Alcohol (ENA) used to manufacture the spurious alcohol came from this as well as other distilleries. Asking the chief minister to nab the real culprits, Mr Majithia said if appropriate action had been taken against Congress leaders responsible for the Rajpura illegal distillery seized earlier a hundred people would not have died today. He asked the chief minister not to go in for diversionary tactics of seizing few drums of illicit liquor from here and there to engage in a cover up exercise. “Punjabis want action against the real king pin behind this racket. Some of them including Congress MLAs have been named by the victim families. Congress leader Ashwani Sekhri has also disclosed how ruling party politicians control everything through hand picked police officers. If the real culprits are not booked more such tragedies will follow”. Mr Majithia said the chief minister should have acted on the issue of excise loot when it was brought to his notice by former chief secretary Karan Avtar Singh who accused ministers of being responsible for the same. He said however a compromise was affected and the State exchequer lost Rs 5,600 crore and also a hundred precious lives. SAD leaders Virsa Singh Valtoha and Harmeet Singh Sandhu also joined the virtual press conference and disclosed how Congress MLAs of the Majha region were running the spurious liquor racket. They said legislators Ramanjit Sikki, Dr Dharambir Agnihotri, Harminder Gill, Sukhpal Bhullar and Sukhwinder Danny had been accused of patronising those involved in supply of spurious liquor. He said some of them had even been named by victim families. He said Sikki’s personal assistant Germanjit was not only behind the spurious liquor supply but had even gone to villages of women who had named him. They also showed pictures of mla Agnihotri being felicitated by liqour smuggler Shamma who was subsequently arrested for his role in the hooch tragedy. The SAD leaders said similarly mla Sukhpal Bhullar’s henchman had been caught with 31,500 litres of ‘lahan’. They also disclosed how Sukhwinder Danny had got a case registered against an excise party instead of bootleggers besides telling how Harminder Gill intimidated a SHO because he was not doing his bidding.