Nabha police recover 4,450 bottles of fake liquor, book six persons

Officials of the excise department have seized around 4,450 bottles of fake liquor from a liquor store contractor Jagdeep Singh in Nabha on Saturday.

Officials of the excise department have seized around 4,450 bottles of fake liquor from a liquor store contractor Jagdeep Singh in Nabha on Saturday.

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Police have booked six persons under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under the Excise Act.

One of the accused named in the case, Makhan Singh, is the husband of Kalaran village sarpanch Gurpreet Kaur.

Nabha excise and taxation inspector Jaspreet Singh said that the department received a tip-off that liquor was being stored at an unauthorised place.

When they raided the place, they found that it was fake liquor. “The fake liquor was being stored in a rented closed shop opposite the contractor’s liquor shop near fatak number 40,” he said.

“The bottles carried fake labels and had no hologram of the Punjab government on them. It is hazardous to consume fake liquor,” the ETI said.

The on-duty station house officer (SHO) Manjit Singh said that the case was registered on complaint of the excise department against main licence holder Jagdeep Singh, his partners Makhan Singh, Raj Chaudhry, Gurpreet Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, and an employee Sumandeep Kumar.

The department is investigating the source of the fake liquor and involvement of others in the matter. The accused have not been arrested so far.