In a move to crack down on illicit liquor trading and smuggling, Rupnagar police on Friday seized the biggest ever cache of illicit liquor in the tough forest terrain of Majri and Dabt villages of Himachal Pradesh, and arrested five people.
According to a press release, seven working stills and around two lakh kilogram of lahan (illicit liquor) was seized in a massive 10-hour operation, in a dense forest area.
"The police team had to cut through the dense and thorny undergrowth in the forest to get in," said Rupnagar SSP Swapan Sharma, adding that the operation was carried out jointly with the Himachal police.
Sharma further stated that as many as 22 police teams comprising of seven police personnel each had participated in the operation and that the teams cordoned off the entire area around the villages, located about 2 km from the Punjab border.
He also added that the two villages, along with the area around them, are notorious for liquor and drug smuggling. The smugglers take advantage of the forest cover and the lack of access in the tough terrain to sneak from Himachal Pradesh into Punjab with their hauls. In the last five years, 26 cases in Punjab and 38 cases in Himachal Pradesh have been registered against people hailing from these areas.
Investigations are currently in progress to trace further links of the accused across Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, said Sharma.
The seizure had come amid state-wide efforts by the Punjab Police, under the directives of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, to check illicit liquor trading, as well as smuggling of liquor from across the state's borders.
( With inputs from ANI )