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STF seizes smuggled liquor, NCB cracks down on trafficked drugs
The Uttar Pradesh police’s special task force (STF) seized a major haul of smuggled liquor from Haryana, meant for distribution to lure voters, and a Punjab resident was arrested in Rae Bareli district early on Tuesday morning, said senior police officials here in Lucknow
The Uttar Pradesh police’s special task force (STF) seized a major haul of smuggled liquor from Haryana, meant for distribution to lure voters, and a Punjab resident was arrested in Rae Bareli district early on Tuesday morning, said senior police officials here in Lucknow.
In an unrelated development, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) seized two consignments of drugs smuggled across the Indo-Nepal border at Shravasti and Lakhimpur Kheri districts, on Tuesday.
The STF press note stated that as many as 526 bottles of liquor were seized from an SUV driven by one Ajeet Singh at the Aghaura inter-district barrier, under the Gurubakshganj police station limits of Rae Bareli district, at around 2.10am. It further read that the bottles were hidden in special chambers made under the seats so that the police would not find them during a cursory check.
A senior STF official said that the liquor was to be delivered to an unknown person in Varanasi and meant to be distributed among voters in remote villages of Varanasi and other adjoining districts. He said the arrested man revealed that one Rajesh Sharma alias Raj Sharma, resident of Panipat, Haryana, had hired him to deliver this SUV to a person in Varanasi.
The official said the arrested driver has claimed that he was unaware about liquor bottles hidden in the SUV and he was told just to deliver the vehicle to Varanasi and in return he was offered ₹5,000 for the trip.
He said the police are further investigating the involvement of the driver and people whose names he has revealed during the questioning. He said the STF has handed over the accused to police at Gurubakshganj police station after lodging an FIR for liquor smuggling.
Drugs seized at Indo-Nepal border
A team of NCB, Lucknow region, seized 3.1 kg of Charas at Indua village of Shravasti district. One person identified as Dashrath, a resident of Sirsiya, Shravasti, who was carrying the contraband was arrested on the spot, a senior NCB official said. He said the interrogation of the accused person is going on which may lead to more arrests in the case.
In the second seizure, 2,700 tablets of Alprazolam, being illicitly sold by a medical store located at Tikunia Bazar in Lakhimpur Kheri, were confiscated. The owner Krishna Kumar, the resident of Suthana Barsola, Tikunia, has been arrested.
