DW BUREAU / Chandigarh The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today asked State police chief Dinkar Gupta to tell Punjabis why he was shielding controversial police officer and Amritsar SSP Dhruv Dahiya whose failure to take action against the liquor mafia caused the death of more than hundred persons during his stint as SSP, Tarn Taran. In a statement here, former minister Bikram Singh Majithia said the people of Tarn Taran had been demanding that SSP Dhruv Dahiya be suspended immediately and booked for failing to act on their complaints against the liquor mafia."Citizens provided Dahiya with clear cut information about criminals manufacturing illicit liquor and even provided him with the license plate numbers of vehicles used by the liquor mafia. However Dahiya refused to act in the matter leading to the hooch tragedy and loss of more than a hundred lives in Tarn Taran alone". Bikram Majithia said the SAD had also brought these facts before the public and also asked DGP Dinkar Gupta to act in the matter. "But it seems the DGP has a special fondness for Dahiya and that is why he is not taking action against him. This is highly condemnable. People expect the DGP to practice professionalism but he is going out of the way to protect Dahiya. This is against all norms of policing The DGP should explain his inability to take action against Dahiya". The SAD leader said the role of the DGP was already under a cloud as far as the hooch tragedy was concerned. He said the DGP refused to take action against Dahiya who as SSP Tarn Taran was directly responsible for the hooch tragedy. "This failure to take action against Dahiya has been compounded by the reward given to the police officer who was subsequently posted as SSP, Amritsar Rural". Majithia said this was not the first time that the DGP had treated Dahiya as his blue eyed boy. He said Dahiya was the same officer who had planned and got a "day light robbery" executed at the residence of Father Antony in 2019 and was shunted out as Khanna SSP by the Election Commission. He said besides the charge of misappropriation of Rs 6.65 crore leveled against the Khanna police during the raid, the Khanna police was also accused of illegal detention of people during the raid and indicted in a departmental inquiry. "It was also proved conclusively in court that Dahiya had lied that the money had been seized during a search operation at a 'naka'. As much as Rs 1.50 crore out of the Rs 16.66 crore seized unlawfully under Dahiya's watch is still unaccounted for but yet he was rewarded by being posted as SSP Tarn Taran instead of being proceeded against". Bikram Majithia said just like in Khanna, where Dahiya was accused of using police cats to conduct raids, in Tarn Taran he was accused of giving a free rein to the liquor mafia. He said after Dahiya's transfer following the hooch tragedy the Tarn Taran police had taken action on these complaints and raided an illegal illicit liquor operation and recovered 31,500 liters of 'lahan'. "The hooch tragedy could have been avoided if Dahiya had acted on the complaints earlier. He is directly complicit in the crime and he should be booked failing which we will start an agitation against DGP Dinkar Gupta for protecting the controversial police officer", Mr Majithia added. (editor@dailyworld.in)