Jalandhar: Juice seller who used shop as cover to smuggle booze held

The accused has been identified as Rajinder Kumar Bhatia alias Raju Chauhan, 52, who runs Raju juice corner at Raj Nagar near Madhuban colony in Jalandhar West

The Jalandhar excise department, along with the district police, arrested a smuggler along with his associate who were running the racket under the garb of a juice corner, and recovered 60 cases of illicit Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) and Punjab-made liquor (PML) from their possession on Wednesday.

According to officials, Raju has been in this illegal trade for the past over five years. (HT)

The accused has been identified as Rajinder Kumar Bhatia alias Raju Chauhan, 52, who runs Raju juice corner at Raj Nagar near Madhuban colony in Jalandhar West.

According to officials, Raju has been in this illegal trade for the past over five years and is already facing multiple cases under the Excise Act. His associate Deepak was also arrested.

Assistant excise commissioner Navjeet Singh said that, acting on the tip-off, a joint raid was carried out at the shop and residence of the accused.

The accused was allegedly procuring country-made and IMFL from other areas and selling the same at discounted prices. The accused was running an illegal liquor trade under the guise of his ‘Raju juice corner. He had constructed a basement in the shop adjacent to his juice corner specifically to store illegal liquor. He had a similar bunker at his residence, too,” he said.

Navjeet said that the teams discovered another specially constructed bunker in the basement of his residence, which was designed for concealment.

“In a basement at his residence, the specific section was hidden behind a large mirror, making it appear as a solid wall. It hid an underground bunker to stash the liquor,” Navjeet said, adding that a total of 60 cases of various brands of English and country-made liquor were recovered from these hidden locations.

“Preliminary investigations reveal that Raju was operating this illegal trade in an organised manner. The accused had installed numerous CCTV cameras at his shop and residence to manage his illegal operations and to monitor the movements and activities of the excise and enforcement teams,” he said.

The case has been registered against both the accused under Sections of the Excise Act at Basti Bawa Khel police station.