Cops ask I-T Dept to look into properties of two bootleggers

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 12

Tightening the noose around bootleggers, including Rashpal Singh and his brother Gurpal Singh of Dhotian village, the Tarn Taran police have approached the Income Tax Department, requesting it to ascertain the source of funds of the suspects which helped them accumulate huge properties.

Though Rashpal is yet to be arrested, Gurpal was nabbed by the Punjab Police in Phillaur for possessing ethanol-based alcohol in July and was later taken into custody by the Tarn Taran police in connection with the hooch tragedy on a production warrant.

The police have also asked the Income Tax Department to examine properties of four other notorious bootleggers — Satnam Singh, his brother Shamsher Singh, their father Harjit Singh and paternal uncle Kashmir Singh, all residents of Pandori Golan village who have amassed a fortune. All of them were arrested by the police in connection with the hooch tragedy that claimed over 120 lives in the Majha region. “We have written to the Income Tax Department, telling them that they (the suspects) did not have any known legal sources of income, but sill had acquired huge properties worth several crores in and outside Punjab.

They would examine how they managed to acquire the properties,” said Senior Superintendent of Police Dhruman H Nimbale while talking to The Tribune.

The police have also roped in the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Union Government which would look into their ‘benami’ properties if any, he added.

Rashpal Singh, alias Shallu (38), who worked as a driver around one-and-a-half decade ago, now owns a number of palatial houses and luxury vehicles. Hailing from Dhotian village in Tarn Taran, he, along with his brother Gurpal Singh, allegedly amassed a fortune from the illicit liquor trade. According to information, both have at least 27 cases registered against them at various police stations in Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Jalandhar, including 10 against Gurpal.

Rashpal Singh, alias Shallu (38), who worked as a driver around one-and-a-half decade ago, now owns a number of palatial houses and luxury vehicles. Hailing from Dhotian village in Tarn Taran, he, along with his brother Gurpal Singh, allegedly amassed a fortune from the illicit liquor trade. According to information, both have at least 27 cases registered against them at various police stations in Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Jalandhar, including 10 against Gurpal.

It is learnt that Rashpal had encroached upon an abandoned plot in 2012 illegally. Preferring anonymity, locals said till 2001, this family lived from hand to mouth. Then Rashpal took up driving and a year later, a case under the NDPS Act was registered against him. He entered the illicit liquor trade in 2005.