A day after running over a police officer in Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas district, the driver accused remains at large on Tuesday (November 3, 2026) even as the police expand their search with multiple teams working across the State, including in districts bordering Gujarat, officials said.
Special DG Upendra Jain told The Hindu that while arresting the driver is a priority, various teams are also looking for the other three accused of an interstate illicit liquor racket.
Inspector Dilip Puri, in charge of Dewas’s Khategaon police station, had died in the wee hours of Monday (November 2, 2026) after he was allegedly mowed down by a truck carrying illicit liquor to Gujarat that he had stopped for checking. A constable was also injured in the incident and the accused driver had been identified as Gajendra Rawat, a resident of Alirajpur district.
Mr. Rawat had fled the scene by crossing over a road divider and abandoned the truck after some distance to escape. The police had seized about 1,800 litres of illicit liquor hidden in the truck.
Following the death, the police had uncovered an inter-state bootlegging network illegally supplying liquor from Harda district to Alirajpur and further smuggling it across the State border into Gujarat.
Three persons, including key accused Rahul Jaiswal who allegedly ran the entire racket from Harda, his associate Vijay Rao in Indore and the truck owner Kairam Singh Changod, a resident of Alirajpur, have been arrested in the case so far, while search is on for three of Mr. Rahul’s alleged business partners and Mr. Rawat.
The police have said that Mr. Rahul has admitted to be a Congress functionary in Dewas. The Opposition party, that has launched scathing attacks on the BJP government over illicit liquor trade over the past few weeks, is yet to respond to Mr. Rahul’s arrest.
“The main person on the supply side was Rahul Jaiswal and on the execution side, it was Kairam Singh and this driver. We have two of them in custody. We have teams working in various districts, including border areas like Alirajpur where they would smuggle liquor into Gujarat from. The remaining people will be arrested soon,” he said.
Mr. Jain also said that the accused would avoid crossing the truck into Gujarat and supply liquor in small quantities from the border areas of Alirajpur and sell in the neighbouring State.
“They [Mr. Rawat and Mr. Changod] would stock the illicit liquor with them in Alirajpur and then smuggle it into Gujarat on motorbike or other smaller vehicles through porous border in forest areas to avoid checking on state borders,” he added.
The police are yet to make an estimate of the total amount of liquor smuggled from Harda.
“Our priority at the moment is arresting all persons. The specific amount is not relevant at this point because it does not change the offence and what we seized from the truck was anyway a large amount,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Dewas Police have also arrested Madhya Pradesh Congress spokesperson Anand Kasliwal in connection with a separate ongoing investigation into a counterfeit liquor manufacturing and selling racket, that allegedly has claimed 13 lives in Dewas in October.
Mr. Anand’s son, Aman Kasliwal, an Indore-based businessman, had been arrested on October 28 for allegedly selling chemicals used to make the fake liquor. Mr. Aman was among the 11 persons arrested in the case for manufacturing and selling the liquor in Dewas’s villages.
Officers said that Mr. Anand was arrested for allegedly tempering with evidence and sale records at his son’s shop.
Mr. Anand had earlier, in a statement, claimed innocence for his son saying that his company had legally sold paint thinner with proper billing and denying any connection with those involved in manufacturing counterfeit liquor.
Published – November 04, 2026 04:10 am IST
