Hooch tragedy: Two arrested in Baddi

Tribune News Service

Ambika Sharma

Solan, January 27

The special investigation team (SIT) probing the Sundernagar hooch tragedy arrested two contractors in the Baddi industrial area last evening.

Those arrested are Santosh Kumar, a native of Hamirpur district, and Ajay Grover, a resident of Manimajra (Chandigarh), said DIG Madhusudan, who heads the SIT. The duo was today produced before a Sundernagar court, which remanded them in police custody for five days.

The SIT, on the information given by the arrested people, also confiscated more than 100 empty drums from a junk dealer at Baddi. These drums reportedly used to store extra neutral alcohol (ENA), which is the raw material used to manufacture spurious liquor.

The duo are also linked to Yamuna Beverages Private Limited (YBPL) located at Nariwala in Paonta Sahib subdivision of Sirmaur district. The company was sealed in July 2021 after 13,802 litres of ENA was found on its premises stocked without a permit. As many as 5,155 cases of country-made liquor could be manufactured from this quantity of ENA. A penalty of about Rs 32 lakh was levied on the company and it caused a revenue loss of Rs 99,11,073 to the state exchequer. Besides, the Una unit of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau had seized 900 boxes of country-made liquor manufactured at the YBPL in October 2021, which were being transported on a forged permit.

Santosh Kumar, who is an authorised signatory of the YBPL, had sought a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the bureau officials at Una on January 6 for restarting the closed liquor unit. He had stated that the NOC was required by the state Tax and Excise Department, said Vigilance bureau officials.

Ajay Grover was also an authorised signatory of the YBPL till early October last year and his name was changed just a week before the Vigilance bureau confiscated the liquor at Una, added the officials.

The lab reports of the liquor seized by the Vigilance bureau proved that the amount of ethanol present in it was less than 40 degree proof litres, while the prescribed limit of alcohol content for human consumption in the state is 50 degree proof litres. A variation of only one degree is permissible in country-made liquor. This means that the alcohol content was pilfered for unauthorised use. The SIT is now inquiring the backward and forward linkages of the arrested duo.

SIT confiscates 100 empty drums

• The SIT also confiscated more than 100 empty drums from a junk dealer at Baddi.
• These drums were reportedly used to store extra neutral alcohol, which is the raw material for manufacturing spurious liquor.
• The arrested persons are linked to Yamuna Beverages Private Limited located at Nariwala in Paonta Sahib of Sirmaur district.

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