Kala Amb bottling plant seeks time to reply

Management of Kala Amb-based liquor bottling plant, Tilok Sons Brewery and Distillery, has sought more time to file its reply after it was served a notice by the State Taxes and Excise Department (STED) following seizure of large cache of unauthorised liquor from its premises on May 5.

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The firm management failed to appear before the collector (south zone) STED despite being accorded three opportunities on May 9, May 14 and May 24 after issuance of a notice for cancellation/suspension of its manufacturing licence.

“The management of Tilok Sons Brewery and Distillery, Kala Amb, been granted time till May 28 to file its reply. The management had failed to appear on three occasions after issuance of a notice following seizure of unauthorised liquor from its premises,” informed Vivek Chauhan, Collector (south zone) STED.

A team led by Ujjal Singh Rana, Additional Commissioner, Enforcement, STED, had raided the said plant on the intervening night of May 5 and 6 where it detected 20 unauthorised persons engaged in manufacturing. As many as 230 cases of Royal Blue Whiskey meant for sale in Uttarakhand, 2,100 excess cases of country liquor, 1,100 excess cases of Indian Made Foreign Liquor and 4,500 bulk litre excess extra neutral liquor were found at the spot.

The excess ENA could produce unauthorised liquor worth lakhs of rupees. As many as 3.95 lakh lables of dry gin and popular brands like Santara, meant for sale in Uttarakhand, were also found at the unit, hinting towards large-scale nefarious manufacturing operations. The firm was sealed by the officials and an FIR was registered for cheating, house trespass, theft and criminal conspiracy and under various sections of the HP Excise Act, 2011 on a complaint filed by the excise officials.

According to the police, the nefarious operations were underway since April and unauthorised liquor was supplied to Haryana, Chandigarh and Uttarakhand as per the demand.