Mobile bar in private bus busted, owner-cum-driver booked for bootlegging

The police on Tuesday night arrested the owner-cum-driver of a private bus from Rajiv Chowk for allegedly running a mobile bar on service lanes of the expressway and bootlegging liquor to Madhubani in Bihar, his home town

The police on Tuesday night arrested the owner-cum-driver of a private bus from Rajiv Chowk for allegedly running a mobile bar on service lanes of the expressway and bootlegging liquor to Madhubani in Bihar, his home town.

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The police said that the suspect, identified as 30-year-old Subhash Kumar, ferried tables and crockery in the vehicle and used to set up the bar in the night, charging double price for bottles of liquor. He also tied up with small eateries for delivering food and used to take a 20% cut from them, they said.

Ten cases of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) were recovered from the boot of the vehicle.

Preet Pal Sangwan, the assistant commissioner of police (crime), said that he used to smuggle liquor to Bihar to make a quick buck, as it is a dry state. “He used to ferry passengers from Gurugram to Darbhanga (in Bihar), almost a 1,200-kilometre trip, twice a week. On other nights, he used to park his bus on the service lane near Rajiv Chowk or Hero Honda Chowk and run the mobile bar,” he said.

Sangwan said he had been using his bus to serve liquor for the past one year. However, the police were able to track the vehicles only on Tuesday night, when a patrol team from Manesar noticed loud music being played in the bus and liquor being served.

Kumar used to make nearly ₹8,000 per night. Six tables and crockery were also found inside the bus. The police said he hired a helper to clean the bus and tables, and used to run the operations at spots frequented by drivers and commuters.

The police said he started smuggling liquor and running the mobile bar since a lockdown was announced in March 2020 to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Kumar was booked under relevant sections of the Excise Act and the Disaster Management Act at the Sadar police station. He was produced in court on Wednesday and sent to 14-day judicial custody.