Three men assault manager for shutting down liquor store

The victim, Bhopal Singh, a local Parthla resident, was closing the store around 9pm when the incident took place.

A 45-year-old manager of a liquor store was allegedly assaulted by three men who were forcing him to keep the shop open after closing hours on Saturday night in Sector 71, the police said.

According to the latest rules, revised in light of the pandemic, liquor shops in the district can remain open only from 10am to 9pm. (Reuters file photo. Representative image)

The victim, Bhopal Singh, a local Parthla resident, was closing the store around 9pm when the incident took place. “One of the men, who is a local resident, came up to me with his two friends and said that the store will not close until they say so or else, they will beat me up. I tried to explain the rules to them, but they refused to listen to me and started threatening me and the workers at the store. The suspects then used barbed wire to assault me. They also took money from me and few goods that were kept outside the shop and fled,” said Singh in his police complaint.

Based on the complaint, a case was registered under Section 324 (voluntarily causing hurt using a dangerous weapon) of the Indian Penal Code on Saturday against the three unidentified suspects at the Phase 3 police station while a medical examination was ordered for the victim.

“Based on the medical report, we will add more sections in the FIR, namely section 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide). One of the suspects has been detained and a search is on for the other responsible people,” said Jitendra Dikshit, station house officer, Phase 3 police station said on Sunday evening.

According to the latest rules, revised in light of the pandemic, liquor shops in the district can remain open only from 10am to 9pm.

In a separate incident, a security guard at a high-rise in Sector 119 was also assaulted allegedly by three men on Friday night after he had asked them to park their vehicle in a parking lot outside the society.

“The alleged incident took place at the Amrapali Platinum society’s entry gate. The guard had stopped two visitors from going inside and had asked them to park the vehicle outside. Meanwhile, the resident whom the men were coming to meet also came to the spot. The three men then assaulted the security guard,” said SHO Dikshit.

The police have not received a formal complaint in the incident so far. “Someone had called the police helpline regarding the incident. The entire incident was captured on CCTV cameras, and the three men— Pradeep, Praveen, and Manoj— were detained under section 151 of the criminal procedure code (CrPC).”