Liquor stock missing case: Senior Haryana IAS officer T C Gupta to head SIT'

The Haryana government on Monday appointed senior IAS officer T C Gupta as head of the special investigation team (SIT) to probe the alleged theft of seized liquor from two godowns in Sonipat district.

About the liquor stock going missing, Home Minister Anil Vij had on Sunday said it is not an ordinary theft case and an in-depth probe is needed to uncover those involved in it. He had recommended to the chief minister that the three-member SIT should be headed by a senior IAS officer for a thorough probe looking into all possible angles involved in the case.

Vij had given names of senior IAS officers Ashok Khemka, Sanjeev Kaushal and T C Gupta, requesting Chief Minister M L Khattar to pick up any one of these officer to head the SIT or suggest a name on his own.

Gupta, who is additional chief secretary in the department of power, employment and renewable energy, will head the team, an order issued by the state home department said. The other members of the SIT will be Subhash Yadav, additional director general of police, State Vigilance Bureau, Gurgaon, and Vijay Singh, additional excise and taxation commissioner.

The SIT will check the actual availability of stock in all warehouses and godowns that were sealed by the excise department during the last two years for any violation, it said.

This means that the SIT will check whether the stock of liquor which was there on the date of sealing is actually the same or not.

The SIT will also examine cases of seizure of illicit/non-excise duty paid liquor in Haryana from the period, April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2020, both by the police and excise departments separately with special reference to the action taken and the fines imposed by the excise department pursuant to the recovery of the liquor, the order said.

It will also collect and collate the result of investigation of the FIRs registered from March 15 till April 10 in different parts of the state for pilferage of liquor from the godowns and also from the Malkhanas (strong rooms) of police stations, as per the order.

The report will be submitted by the SIT by May 31, the order issued by the home department.

The Haryana Police on Saturday seized Rs 97 lakh in cash, two pistols and three mobile phones besides a sports utility vehicle following a raid in a house to nab the prime accused in the case of missing liquor stocks from the two godowns in Sonipat.

The Sonipat police raided the house of accused Bhupinder Singh, but he managed to escape, said officials. However, later on, he surrendered before the police.

The godowns in Sonipat from where the liquor stock was reported missing are stated to belong to accused Bhupinder Singh's wife.