A police case in Shahkot, Jalandhar has come under question after CCTV footage surfaced which appears to show that the material claimed to be recovered from a man’s house may have been brought there by the police themselves.
According to FIR No. 90 registered on April 9 at Shahkot Police Station a police and Excise Department team claimed to have recovered 35 litres of ‘lahan’ (a fermented substance used to make illicit liquor) from the house of Akram who is a resident of Daulatpur Dhadda village and the FIR states that the lahan was found in a blue plastic drum kept inside a room used for storing fodder. The police have maintained in the FIR that the lahan was recovered from inside the house where samples were taken and the drum was sealed as per procedure following which a case has been registered against Akram under Section 61 of the Excise Act.
However CCTV footage from the lane outside the house shows visuals that raise doubts about this claim and in the footage a silver EcoSport vehicle is seen arriving near the house and some individuals including police personnel are seen unloading a blue drum from the vehicle and carrying it inside the house. The footage further shows that around 13 minutes later the same drum is brought out of the house and loaded back into the vehicle and a total of seven personnel can be seen in the footage including both uniformed and plainclothes individuals. Other than this another point being questioned is how the exact quantity of 35 litres was determined during the operation as no weighing or measuring equipment is visible in the footage.
At the time of the alleged raid the alleged accused Akram was reportedly not present at home and his family members appeared fearful when approached and he could not be located while talking about this the villagers said that he works as a daily-wage labourer and also mentioned that two cases had earlier been registered against him though the reasons behind the current action remain unclear.
Legal expert Mandeep Singh Sachdev said that if it is proven that evidence was planted, strict action can be taken under relevant sections for fabricating false evidence, misuse of authority by a public servant and criminal conspiracy and adds that in such a situation the police personnel involved would be treated like any other accused person and no special or separate procedure would apply and as of now the matter is likely to be examined further based on the available evidence and official inquiry.
