Three held for illicit foreign liquor trade

Police seized more than 3,400 cartons of liquor made in Australia, France and Italy from a ‘safe house’ in Delhi’s Paschim Vihar.

The Delhi Police’s crime branch has arrested three men for allegedly storing and selling foreign made illicit liquor. They said they have seized more than 3,400 cartons of liquor made in Australia, France and Italy from a ‘safe house’ in Paschim Vihar.

Virender Singh Rana (L), Aditya Gupta (second from left) and Samuel Kutty (second from right) in police custody (HT PHOTO)

The three have been identified as Samuel Kutty, an M Com graduate from Kerala who has worked as a general manager at a company in Dubai, Aditya Gupta, a graduate from Delhi University’s College of Vocational Studies, who was working as a deputy general manager at a multinational company in Delhi, and their associate, Virender Singh Rana, a school drop-out.

Additional commissioner of police (crime), Rajeev Ranjan said they had received inputs that some persons are running a syndicate selling foreign made liquor without a valid licence. “We roped in the excise department and on Thursday, a decoy was sent to fix a deal with them, following which Rana, who came to meet the decoy, was nabbed,” Ranjan said.

He then led them to a basement at a commercial centre in Paschim Vihar, where Gupta and Kutty were present. “A large cache of foreign liquor was found. Since they could not produce documents for legally storing or selling the liquor, they were arrested,” the officer said.

The police also found that a company, a subsidiary of the company Gupta was working at, was engaged in importing and selling foreign liquor.

Inquiry revealed that the company had a valid licence of excise and customs for up to 2016 which could not be renewed due to the company’s internal issues, police said.

Ranjan said the remaining stock was not legally settled by the erring company with authorities and without obtaining permissions, they allegedly started selling the liquor in open market.

“It was also revealed that the parent company of the subsidiary group had earlier been involved in a Ponzi scam and one of its directors is in judicial custody at present,” he said.