More raids in Dera Bassi, 875 litres of illicit raw spirit seized
The recoveries were made after four persons arrested after Sunday’s raids revealed that they had hidden raw spirit in small 25-litre and 50-litre drums within the ‘inner circle’ of the factories.
Continuing with its raids for the second day on Monday to seize illicit chemicals, a special investigating team (SIT) with the excise department on Monday recovered 875 litres of raw spirit from an industrial unit in Dera Bassi in Mohali district.
On Sunday, the team seized 27,600 litres of illicit chemicals with spirit from three industrial units in Dera Bassi in what it claimed was the biggest such haul in Punjab.
The spirit was recovered at Om Solvi Trading, which had been raided on Sunday too
The raids followed the recent tragic deaths of more than a 100 people, mostly in the Majha area, after drinking hooch.
SIT head, deputy inspector general of police (DIG) Hardyal Singh Mann, said around 875 litres of raw spirit recovered from Om Solvi Trading had been sent for analysis at a forensic laboratory.
SIT would investigate the source and customers of the units which had been raided.
However, it was suspected that most of the spirit was being sold to illicit liquor manufacturers, Mann added.
The SIT raiding team headed by deputy superintendent of police Bikram Singh Brar said that in disclosures of four persons arrested after Sunday’s raids revealed that they had hidden raw spirit in small 25-litre and 50-litre drums within the “inner circle” of the factories.
“Searches (on Monday) led police to the small drums with 875 litres of raw spirit. These have been seized and handed over to the excise department,” the DSP said.
The four men arrested after Sunday’s raids, namely AK Chaudhary and KP Singh, directors of Allychem Laboratories Pvt Ltd, Gaurav Chaudhary, proprietor of Om Solvi Trading Co and Jagmohan Arora, proprietor of Pure Solutions, were produced in the local court of Dera Bassi on Monday and sent to two-day police remand.
The joint commissioner of the excise and taxation department Naresh Dubey said a detailed report on whether the spirit was being used to manufacture illicit liquor would be out in some time after the remand period (of the four men) was over.
