Ludhiana, September 14
The Kotwali police raided Namak Mandi on Tuesday night and seized a huge stock of crackers lying open in the market.
The police registered a case against Sanjay Singla under relevant sections of the IPC and Section 9B of The Explosives Act and arrested him.
ADCP-1 Rupinder Kaur Sran, who supervised the raid, said a tip-off was received that some wholesale cracker trader had illegally stored a huge quantity of crackers at Namak Mandi. The crackers were kept on the road, covered under a tarpaulin.
Accordingly, the police party conducted a raid and seized the stock. The value of the seized crackers in 200 boxes was said to be around Rs 7 lakh.
ADCP Sran said crackers could not be stored at a residential or congested place. Permission from the department concerned was needed to store the same. If any untoward incident such as fire, it could prove hazardous for people staying in the area and properties located around the godown might also suffer damages.
Sources said after the raid, police officials got several phone calls from influential politicians and government officials to save the cracker trader, but the police did not pay heed and registered a case against him.
Sran: Will not allow cracker storage sans licence
ADCP-1 Rupinder Kaur Sran said storage of crackers without licence would not be allowed. In this case, where trader Sanjay Singla was arrested, the police were also mulling to recommend cancellation of licence of a Ferozepur-based wholesaler who sold a huge stock of crackers to Singla without checking his storage licence.
“I have already directed all police stations of Zone 1 to conduct surprise checking in their areas to ensure that ther would be no illegal storage of crackers to prevent any untoward incident. Any person can also lodge a complaint with the police if they notice, any illegal storage of crackers in their areas. A meeting of wholesale traders are being called to ensure the compliance of the guidelines,” the ADCP said.
