Three bootleggers held with 18,817 liquor bottles: Police

Police said the arrested men, two of them from Tamil Nadu, had stored the liquor bottles to sell them on days when the sale of liquor is prohibited by the government.

Three persons have been arrested with 18,817 liquor bottles in two separate operations by Delhi Police on Wednesday.

In the first case, the Lajpat Nagar police station team seized 17,234 bottles from two men who, along with two others, were carrying the bottles packed in cartons on their back near Jal Vihar in Lajpat Nagar (PTI File / Representative Photo)

Police said the arrested men, two of them from Tamil Nadu, had stored the liquor bottles to sell them on days when the sale of liquor is prohibited by the government.

In the first case, the Lajpat Nagar police station team seized 17,234 bottles from two men who, along with two others, were carrying the bottles packed in cartons on their back near Jal Vihar in Lajpat Nagar. The other two managed to flee when the local police raided the area around 1 pm.

Deputy commissioner of police (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said the arrested men -- Shaktivel,42, and Annadarai,45 -- are from Tamil Nadu but were living in Delhi for the past many years. “A case under Excise Act was registered and the two were arrested,” Biswal said.

During interrogation, the DCP said, the arrested men said they had procured a huge consignment of illicit liquor from unauthorised suppliers to sell it on April 17 and 19, which had been declared dry days because of Mahavir Jayanti and Good Friday.

“They were looking forward to sell the liquor at hiked prices to earn profits. The consignment was unloaded at the abandoned railway quarters near the railway track. Our team learnt about it and raided the area. The absconding bootleggers are Rama Murthy and Degraj,” added Biswal.

In another operation, the New Usmanpur police arrested a 23-year-old alleged bootlegger and seized 33 cartons containing 1,584 liquor bottles, which he was transporting in a car that was stolen from outer Delhi’s Narela. Police said the arrested man, Kailash, is a native of Budaun in Uttar Pradesh.

Police said Kailash told them that he received the consignment of illicit liquor from a supplier in Loni near Ghaziabad and had to deliver it to another person in New Usmanpur.