Five officials of the State Forest Department were booked by the Pune district rural police on Monday for allegedly holding a ‘liquor party’ in Shivneri fort in Junnar tehsil, 70 km from here.
According to the police, the officials had indulged in inebriated revelry on Sunday night inside the fort premises on the eve of Shiv Jayanti celebrations.
Maratha Warrior King Shivaji, who was born at the fort in 1630 C.E. had spent his childhood here.
Some youths visiting the fort had filmed the officialsholding a drunken revelry in the fort premises.
Junnar police detained the officials on seeing the clips.
Two of them, Prakash Jadhav and Santosh Navgirhe, were suspended.
With Junnar being actively promoted as the district’s ‘tourism tehsil’ , the officials had been assigned the task of upkeeping the fort premises and to prevent activities such as consuming alcoholic drinks on the premises.
“A case has been registered against them under section 65 (e) of the Bombay Prohibition Act. While the officials were in the khaki uniform of policemen, they belonged to the State Forest Department,” said an officer from the Pune Rural Police.
