Gujarat: Seven cops booked after 132 liquor bottles found in Kadi canal

A team of NDRF scuba divers was called in by senior police officials on Saturday and Sunday to extract 132 bottles of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) from the Narmada canal near Kadi police station, after which a case was booked.

Seven policemen, including the police inspector, attached with Kadi police station in Mehsana have been booked under Prohibition Act and various sections of the IPC, a day after 132 bottles of illicit liquor were found from a canal in Kadi, which was allegedly thrown by the local police to dispose of evidence.

A team of NDRF scuba divers was called in by senior police officials on Saturday and Sunday to extract 132 bottles of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) from the Narmada canal near Kadi police station, after which a case was booked.

According to an FIR filed at Kadi police station, an investigation by the team of Inspector General (Gandhinagar range) has revealed that the accused policemen were involved in alleged sale and consumption of seized illicit liquor kept on the police station premises.

The accused police officers are police inspector OM Desai, sub inspectors K N Patel, A S Bara, assistant sub-inspector Mohan Harihai, and head constables Prahlad Ramabhai, Hitendra Kumar Kantilal, and Shailesh Kumar Karamshibhai. They have been booked under Indian penal code sections 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 431 (mischief) 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and sections of the Prohibition Act.

“On May 20, an tip was received by IG Gandhinagar range that at the Kadi police station premises in room number 62 of police line quarters, bottles of IMFL have been kept for personal consumption of the police officers. After the officers got to know about a police inspection, they threw the bottles in Narmada Canal near Sujatpur village in Kadi to destroy evidence and threw some empty bottles in bushes. Upon receiving the information, a Special Investigative Team (SIT) was formed by the IG Gandhinagar range on May 21,” read the FIR report.

According to police officials, the SIT team found some empty bottles of IMFL on May 22 and then started looking in the canal. However, after police and fire department divers failed to locate the bottles, a team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) scuba divers were called in for help. The NDRF team extracted 132 bottles of IMFL on May 23 and May 24.

The FIR has also alleged that the IMFL found from the canal belongs to the seized liquor attached with Kadi police station through past raids.

“The accused policemen had loaded the seized IMFL lot in seven government vehicles and out of them, one was sold for personal gains. The remaining lot in six vehicles was then stored in the room number 62 of the police line quarters and they were recently removed again to be thrown in the Narmada canal.