Huge quantity of ‘lahan’, illicit liquor seized in Amritsar village

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

(Lopoke) Amritsar, March 1

In an early morning crackdown, Excise and Taxation department along with Punjab police on Monday seized over 1 lakh kg of ‘lahan’ (raw material for distillation of illicit liquor) along with 1,780 litre of illicit liquor from Khiala Kalan village falling under Lopoke police station here.

Eight persons, including three women were arrested during six-hour raid conducted 11 houses in the village.

According to excise officials, it was a kind of ‘mini illegal distillery’ that was found running with pipes laid underground to drain the waste material generated after distillation of illicit liquor.

Those arrested were identified as Kuldeep Singh, Satnam Singh, Ravinder Singh, Dharamvir Singh, Harjinder Singh, Savinder Kaur, Preeti and Simranjit Kaur.

Jaspinder Singh, Deputy Commissioner, Excise, revealed that they were involved in supplying illicit liquor in Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur area after filling it in polythene bags. Before carrying out the raid, a recce of the entire village was done by the informers. During the raid that commenced at 5am, the excise and police teams searched 25 houses and made huge recoveries in the 7 houses owned by the accused.

“These bootleggers had constructed underground RCC pits to conceal the drums for fermentation of Lahan which was then shifted to other drums for heating and distilling operation,” he said. A pipeline was laid underground to drain the waste produced after distillation process, he added.

Avtar Singh Kang, Assistant Commissioner Excise, Amritsar, revealed that this is for the first time that modern methods of distillation were was unearthed by the team. The accused used commercial gas cylinders and branded yeast for the process of huge quantity of illicit liquor. The raiding party seized 6 LPG gas cylinders from the spot.

The excise and police teams seized 1.09 lakh kg lahan, 1780 litre of illicit liquor, 6 working stills, 62 drums of 200 litre capacity each, 31 plastic cans of 100 litre capacity each, 2 water tanks of 500 litres capacity, 2 plastic drums of 50 litres and 11 plastic cans of 35 litres besides tarpaulines.

The Excise department has also booked two jaggery suppliers in the case also, said Kang, adding that they used to supply bulk quantity of jaggery for production of illicit liquor.