Punjab Excise Department busted a liquor smuggling module and arrested four members of the gang, said an official release on Saturday.
The gang was allegedly involved in filling smuggled cheap liquor from Chandigarh into expensive imported scotch brands. Four members of the gang were arrested with fake liquor.
Excise Commissioner Varun Roojam reiterated that the Punjab Government has zero-tolerance policy as far as the smuggling of liquor or any illegal activity relating to Excise is concerned. He said that action would be taken as per law against the accused.
Joint Excise Commissioner Naresh Dubey informed that secret information was received that an organized gang is involved in smuggling cheap liquor from Chandigarh into Punjab and further fill it in bottles of expensive scotch brands. With the coordinated efforts of the Special Operation Group (SOG) of the Excise Department and Fatehgarh Sahib district police intelligence inputs were gathered.
The team got a tip that the accused Kundan Visht, a resident of Village Kajhedi, Chandigarh will be supplying the fake scotch liquor along with his gang members. In order to catch the accused red-handed, teams of special operations group of Excise and Police swung into action and special nakabandi was done.
Two cars were intercepted on naka near Khamano and four members of the gang Kundan Visht, Harshwardan, resident of Ambala, Pardeep Singh, resident of Jeend, Haryana and Jasmin Kaur, a resident of Sangrur were arrested from the spot. The team also found fake liquor consignment.
During interrogation, the arrested persons revealed that they smuggle cheap liquor from Chandigarh and fill it in expensive scotch empty bottles at their rented residence.
The special operations group team then raided the rented residence of Pardeep Singh and Jasmin Kaur in Madanpur, Mohali and recovered stock of illegal liquor.
During the investigation, the accused also admitted that they buy empty bottles of scotch brands from different scrap dealers of Mohali and Ludhiana who are also involved in this racket. The police teams are in pursuit of these dealers and their premises are being raided to arrest them.
An FIR has been registered at Khamano police station against the four under the relevant section of the Punjab Excise Act and sections 420 and 120-B of IPC.
( With inputs from ANI )
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