5 cops face action for conniving with liquor smugglers

Ballia (Uttar Pradesh) March 9 (SocialNews.XYZ) Action has been initiated against two sub-inspectors and three constables in Ballia district for having links with liquor smugglers.

This comes three days after action was taken against 22 policemen in Chandauli for similar reasons.

According to the government spokesman, senior officials had got intelligence inputs of a nexus between local policemen and smugglers for transporting liquor in bordering Bihar, which is a dry state.

Following this, strict vigil was maintained, and this led to the seizure of two big liquor consignments in Ballia by a special team after which policemen posted at Haldi and Dubahar police stations came on radar of Superintendent of Police (SP) Vipin Tada.

Tada ordered the attachment of sub-inspector Suryanath Yadav and constables Satish Yadav and Abhishek Yadav of Haldi police station, and sub-inspector Surjit Singh and constable Shiv Mangal Singh Yadav of the Dubahar police station to police lines.

According to SP Ballia, "On getting inputs, I sent special teams without informing Haldi and Dubahar police stations. The teams raided two locations and seized 765 boxes of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) stocked for smuggling to Bihar and arrested the smugglers on Monday."

The role of outpost in-charges and some constables seemed suspicious, and a deputy SP has been assigned the probe. Five policemen have been attached with police lines to ensure fair investigation, the SP added.

"Role of more policemen is also under scanner. Our move of sharing phone numbers of senior police officials with the public has started yielding results as we are getting inputs and information easily," said Vipin Tada.

Earlier, the surveillance cell and Alinagar policemen seized a truck and a car carrying 1,750 litre of IMFL of some brands in 190 boxes in Chandauli.

SP Chandauli Amit Kumar said on Monday, "We arrested three men from Haryana and recovered liquor worth Rs 20 lakh being smuggled to Bihar. A sticker 'On Army Duty' was pasted on the truck and liquor was being illegally transported on documents of animal fodder."

Chandauli SP Amit Kumar had swung into action after an audio clip of a conversation between a constable of Khandwa police station and smuggler went viral in which the policeman was taking guarantee for the safe passage of liquor consignments to Bihar.

The action started yielding results as several liquor consignments were recovered in Chandauli between Saturday and Monday.

Only on March 6, police had caught three smugglers trying to cross the border on foot and motorcycles with small liquor consignments.

Source: IANS