Himachal: Unearthing of bottling plant shows illicit liquor trade flourishing

Ambika Sharma

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Solan, January 29

A cache of empty bottles, labels, holograms and machinery of VRV Fools Limited found by a team of State Taxes and Excise Department (STED) from a building at Ramshehar last evening indicates that the illicit liquor trade is flourishing in the Nalagarh industrial belt.

A team led by Himanshu Pawar, Deputy Commissioner, State Taxes and Excise Department, Solan, raided a two-storey building at Balechri village in Ramshehar around 6.15 pm Friday and unearthed the illegal liquor bottling plant and confiscated incriminating material. However, no person was found in the building.

Pawar told The Tribune that according to local residents, some people from Bilaspur had purchased the building from its original owner about five years ago. A large number of people frequented the place. As they kept German Shepherd dogs in the building, the villagers kept away from them.

The building is located in an isolated place, and so was ideal for operating a liquor bottling plant. As spirit used in manufacturing liquor was not found, it appears it was taken away.

The raiding team found empty bottles bearing the label of VRV Fools Limited-VRV Santra, unused holograms, batch punching machine, printed rolls bearing the label of VRV Fools Ltd. Sansarpur Terrace, Kangra, HP, partially used flavours of orange and strawberry, cartons and five empty drums of 20 litres capacity. The same liquor brand is at the centre of the Mandi hooch tragedy.

As per the locals, a forest guard from Namhol in Bilaspur had bought the building some years ago from its original owner and may have sold it further.

DSP, Baddi, Navdeep Singh said that a case under Sections 39(1)(c), 47, 56 of the HP Excise Act had been registered and a probe was underway. “The building owner will be traced by scrutinizing records of the Revenue Department and information about the person, who had secured the power meter, would be used in the probe”.