Police have claimed to have seized Rs 8 lakh cash, liquor bottles and AAP election campaign material from a vehicle bearing a Punjab registration number, near Punjab Bhavan in the New Delhi constituency, on Wednesday.
Acting on a tip-off, a police team searched the vehicle parked on Copernicus Marg. “The vehicle, which displayed ‘Punjab Sarkar’ markings and Punjab registration plates, contained cash worth several lakhs of rupees, multiple bottles of liquor, and AAP campaign pamphlets,” DCP (New Delhi) Devesh Kumar Mahla said. Police later confirmed that the cash found in the car totalled Rs 8 lakh.
A case was registered at Tilak Marg police station.
In another operation in central Delhi’s Alipur area, police seized nearly 65,000 quarters of liquor and 8,750 beer bottles in over 2,070 boxes in a warehouse. “The operation stemmed from an earlier seizure of 40 boxes in Patel Nagar, which led the investigators to this larger supply chain,” DCP (central) M Harsha Vardhan said. “About 90% of the confiscated liquor bore markings of Punjab and Chandigarh, while the remaining 10% was marked from Haryana,” he added.
In southwest Delhi’s Kishangarh, Rs 83 lakh cash was found in a car on Monday during a routine check.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva on Wednesday said there was a direct connection between the AAP govts of Delhi and Punjab and the “unprecedented” surge in liquor seizures ahead of the elections. “The seizures clearly indicates one thing. Both the Punjab and Delhi govts are actively facilitating AAP’s campaign,” Sachdeva said. He highlighted that the massive haul was from Bakoli, a village connected to an AAP candidate. “These bottles, explicitly labelled for sale in Punjab, were found in Bakoli. The circumstances are suspicious.”
AAP countered the police’s claim and Sachdeva’s charges, calling the information “totally fake and laughable”. It said tracking data with it showed the number belonged to a Hyundai Creta. “No entry record of this vehicle (is there) at Punjab Bhawan for the past week,” it said. It said the owner details could be traced back to someone from Pathankot, then Punjabi Bagh, but originally from Pune. It called the claim “a planted stunt, poorly executed, utterly bogus”.
