S-I Chhatrapati Chide was waiting to intercept the vehicle carrying illicit liqour when he was run over. S-I Chhatrapati Chide was waiting to intercept the vehicle carrying illicit liqour when he was run over.

A police sub-inspector was crushed by a vehicle he was trying to flag down in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district on Tuesday. The vehicle was allegedly carrying illicit liquor.

Superintendent of Police Maheshwar Reddy told The Indian Express, “Sub-inspector Chhatrapati Chide, 42, a PSI at Nagbhid police station in the district, had information about a four-wheeler carrying illicit liquor. So, around 8 am today, he was waiting on a road to intercept the vehicle. The vehicle, however, didn’t stop and ran over him.”

The vehicle that crushed the sub-inspector was a Mahindra Scorpio and was untraceable till late Tuesday.

According to news agency PTI, Chide was rushed to a hospital in Bramhapuri where he succumbed to his injuries.

Chandrapur has been declared a ‘dry’ district by the state government, but liquor is often illegally transported into it.

Wardha, a place associated with Mahatma Gandhi, and Gadchiroli have also been declared ‘dry’ districts by the state government.

Reddy said that he would brief the media about the incident on Wednesday. Sources, however, said that the man behind the smuggling was a known culprit from Kurkheda tahsil town in Gadchiroli.

Prohibition activist Paromita Goswami, whose Shramik Elgar NGO has fought many battles for prohibition in Chandrapur said, “It’s a sad story that a police officer died this way on a Diwali day. But I will blame the government for it because it has not implemented many things that were needed to make it (prohibition) successful. For example, it was decided to have a separate police machinery led by a SP to implement prohibition in the three districts of Wardha, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli. That has not happened… All this has emboldened the liquor smugglers.”

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