Excise teams to verify liquor stock

Tribune News Service

Ambala, September 14

The teams of the Excise Department will inspect three distilleries in Haryana and a bottling plant in Punjab in connection with the huge stock (nearly 1,300 boxes) of IMFL brands recovered from Mandour village in Ambala on Friday night and Saturday.

Can’t share info

We have received some leads and we are working on it but information can’t be shared at this stage as it may hamper the investigation. We have activated our network in Gujarat. Rajesh Kalia, SP

A total of 142 boxes of McDowell’s No 1. “for sale in Haryana” and 148 boxes of Royal Challenge “for sale in Haryana”, while 293 boxes of Imperial Blue “for sale in Chandigarh” and 719 boxes of Old Monk Rum “for sale in Haryana (CSD)” were recovered.

An official of the Excise Department said the teams would be visiting the distilleries in Karnal (for McDowell No.1), Sonepat (for Old Monk Rum), Samalkha (for Royal Challenge) and a bottling plant in Dera Bassi (for Imperial Blue), whose names have been found on the labels of the bottles for verification of stocks recovered. The teams would submit their report before Ambala City SDM Sachin Gupta, who is the chairman of the SIT constituted in this matter.

The suspects used to smuggle the liquor in the boxes of aloe vera juice to Gujarat and Rajasthan. As per the rent agreements, the godowns were given to one Nikhil Patel, a resident of Gujarat.

On Friday night, the lid was blown off the scam after a transporter, who was approached to ferry liquor boxes in a canter to Gujarat, got suspicious and informed the police.

SP Rajesh Kalia said: “We have received some leads and we are working on it but information can’t be shared at this stage as it may hamper the investigation. We have activated our network in Gujarat to check if any such person is there but prima facie the Gujarat person seems to be just a face and not an original person. Usually, people involved in such activities use fake names and don’t use original details to avoid getting caught. The Excise Department has been asked to submit a report regarding the liquor if it was genuine or not, and also about the labels and distilleries.”

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