ED likely to shift investigations into illicit liquor trade from Punjab to Delhi

PATIALA: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is likely to transfer investigations into the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) registered to look into the illicit liquor trade from Punjab to Delhi.
The joint director at the ED’s Jalandhar regional office, Ashok Gautam, said he had not yet received any formal communication from the headquarters to transfer the case to Delhi, but the sources in the ED said the team investigating the matter has been asked to stall the probe till the case is transferred to Delhi.
Deputy Director, Naranjan Singh, when contacted, said it was the prerogative of the ED to transfer any case from the regional office to the headquarter or vice versa.
It was on September 3 that the Jalandhar based regional office of the ED had registered an ECIR to investigate the illicit liquor mafia which was allegedly active in the state.
In the ECIR the ED had incorporated 13 first information reports (FIRs) registered by the state police in various districts over the last two years into cases of the illicit liquor trade. Immediately after registering the ECIR, the ED had written to concerned SSPs seeking details of the cases registered by them.
Though the ED had sought that these details be provided within one week, but it has been learnt that the state police have only provided details into three cases registered at Amritsar Rural, Tarn Taran and Batala following the hooch tragedy. No details related to the other 10 FIRs incorporated by the ED in the ECIR have so far been provided.
Ashok Gautam said, “The correspondence with the state police department was still on, and we are waiting for the state authorities to share the details of the FIRs registered into the illicit liquor trade.”
However, sources said the state police has sent in writing to the ED all 10 cases related to illicit trade which have been incorporated by the ED in the ECIR ‘have been investigated by the police and challans have been submitted in the concerned courts, hinting that now ED can take the details of these cases from the courts.
The ED has so far included five FIRs registered in Patiala district since 2018, three registered at Mohali and one each registered at Khanna and Ludhiana. Besides, one FIR each registered at Taran Taran, Batala, Amritsar rural where the hooch tragedy have also been made part of the ECIR.