345 illicit liquor crates seized in Una

Una, May 29

The Una police seized 345 crates of illicit country-made liquor from a non-fuctional industrial unit at Mehatpur in the district last night.

The recovery was made on the basis of information provided by two persons, who were arrested on the intervening night of May 26 and 27 with 45 crates of illicit liquor.

The accused had been identified as Mohit Rajput of Malahat village in Una district and Ashwani Kumar of G-Block at Nangal in Rupnagar district of Punjab. Forty-five crates of liquor were found in their vehicle when they were stopped by a police party. But they failed to produce required documents for the liquor.

The bottles had labels bearing the brand name of VRV distilleries. But after preliminary inspection, a sales manager of the firm had told the police that the labels were fake.

Besides 375 crates of illicit country-made liquor, other items such as drums were also found on the premises, suggesting that it was being used as a bottling plant. The area sales manager of VRV distilleries said the logo and hologram on the bottles seized last night were also fake.

It is learnt that the accused had taken the premises on lease for setting up a carbonated water bottling plant. The police are also investigating the possibility of a larger nexus involved in the illicit liquor business.

Meanwhile, the state Tax and Excise Department has seized a big haul of liquor being smuggled to Kullu, Mandi, Baddi, Solan and Nurpur districts.

The department has seized 8 lakh ml of illicit liquor over the past few days. Police teams conducted raids in Ulehariyan Khanpur, Basantpur, Gagwal, Barota and Thakurdwara and seized 30,000 litres of raw liquor (lahan) and destroyed it. Besides, they seized 10 litres of lahan from Bhulpur Ulehariyan. An FIR was registered against the accused at Thakurdwara police station.

The Assistant Commissioner, Excise Department, Kullu, inspected a premises along the Banogi-Kullu Beasar road and seized 588 bottles of liquor and 369 bottles of beer meant for sale in Punjab only.

A case has been registered at Kullu police station. Besides, 148 bottles of liquor were seized in other districts and cases were registered.