Five policemen including an assistant sub-inspector have been arrested for allegedly stealing seized liquor bottles and table fans worth Rs 1.97 lakh from a police station in Gujarat's Mahisagar district, an official said on Saturday.

The liquor bottles and fans had been stored in the women's lock-up at the Bakor police station in Khanpur taluka, said Deputy Superintendent of Police P S Valvi.

"Bakor police had seized 482 bottles of Indian-Made Foreign Liquor and 75 table fans from a person who was trying to smuggle liquor into Gujarat by hiding them behind the boxes of table fans. As the room meant to store such articles was full, they were kept in the women's lock-up," said Valvi.

In view of an upcoming inspection visit by senior officers, the police personnel were asked to update the record of seized items and tidy up the police station. While cleaning the lock-up, empty or broken boxes of IMFL bottles and fans were noticed, the official said.

Inspection revealed that 125 IMFL bottles worth Rs 1.57 lakh and 15 fans worth Rs 40,500 were missing, following which a First Information Report was registered on November 13, said Valvi.

CCTV footage showed that ASI Arvind Khant orchestrated the theft on the night of October 25 when he was on duty as police station officer, said the FIR. The footage showed Khant along with head constable Lalit Parmar entering the lock-up around 10 pm and coming out while carrying some liquor bottles, it said.

Khant also allegedly turned off the CCTV cameras for some time.

He, Parmar, and three other policemen were arrested under Indian Penal Code section 380 (theft) and other relevant offences. A sixth accused, a local person who allegedly helped them, was absconding, deputy superintendent Valvi said.

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