Illicit liquor was supplied to Meerut, Dehradun via Manesar: Police probe

Ravinder Saini

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Mahendragarh, April 16

The police investigation into the seizure of 1,023 boxes of illicit liquor case has revealed that besides Gujarat, the liquor was also supplied to Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) and Dehradun (Uttarakhand) via Manesar (Gurugram) from a Chandigarh-based bottling plant. The plastic bottles were labelled as that of popular brands and CSD at a godown in Manesar.

Was seized last year

• A team of Narnaul CIA had, on December 18 last year, seized 1,023 boxes of illicit liquor from NH-152D when these were being transported to the Manesar godown from Chandigarh
• Later, 106 boxes of illicit liquor were recovered from the godown and it was found that the liquor was smuggled to Gujarat from there by putting labels of popular brands

“The liquor was then transported to Meerut and Dehradun from Manesar in personal vehicles so as to evade police checking en route. The practice was being followed for the past over three years. It came to the fore when a man from Meerut, identified as Pankaj Goyal alias Sonu Baniya, and three others — identified as Bhagwant Vashisth, Ankit and Sumit — from Dehradun were arrested on Friday for their involvement in the crime,” said Vikrant Bhushan, Superintendent of Police (SP), Mahendragarh.

He said a team of Narnaul CIA had, on December 18 last year, seized 1,023 boxes of illicit liquor from National Highway-152D when these were being transported to the Manesar godown from Chandigarh in a container. Later, 106 boxes of illicit liquor were recovered from the godown and it was found that the liquor was smuggled to Gujarat from there by putting labels of popular brands and CSD on bottles.

“During the interrogation, the container driver disclosed that he used to charge Rs 2 lakh for transporting the liquor from Chandigarh to Gujarat via Jaipur. The probe also revealed that over 2,000 boxes without labelled plastic bottles of liquor and without any permit were illegally supplied by Chandigarh-based Sancheti Packaging Private Limited to Manesar godown every month. Thereafter, the liquor was smuggled to Gujarat, Meerut and Dehradun to make profit,” said Vikrant.

The SP further said a total of 20 persons belonging to Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh, including six directors/employees of the Sancheti Packaging Private Limited, had so far been arrested for their involvement in this illegal trade while some more arrests were likely to be made soon as some crucial information about the racket had been received during the interrogation of Pankaj, Bhagwant Vashisth, Ankit and Sumit.