Cops seize Udaipur-bound illegal liquor consignment

The city police on Sunday seized a truck that was illegally transporting 910 cases of popular liquor brands to Udaipur from a wholesale depot in Badshahpur on Sohna Road.

The city police on Sunday seized a truck that was illegally transporting 910 cases of popular liquor brands to Udaipur from a wholesale depot in Badshahpur on Sohna Road.

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Two men — driver Shabeer Ali, 24, and Virender Singh, 25 — were arrested. The arrested, who belong to Bhilwada in Rajasthan, had been active in the business here for the past six months, the police said.

The police had received a tip off after the loaded truck left the Badshahpur godown around 4.30am. The truck was intercepted at Subhash Chowk on Sohna Road by sub inspector Rajbeer Singh and sub inspector Om Prakash.

The truck had a fake registration number and the goods invoice recovered from them said the truck was loaded with electrical goods. The driver and conductor were produced in a local court where the duty magistrate sentenced the driver to one-day police remand and the conductor was sent to 14 days’ judicial custody.

According to the police, the liquor was original but it was being sent out of the state through illegal means. An investigation is on to nab the owner of the wholesale company.

This is not the first time a large consignment of liquor was being transported illegally to the neighbouring state as Haryana is fast becoming a dependable source for bootleggers. According to liquor industry experts, in Haryana, wholesale and retail units sell about 30% of the IMFL (Indian Made Foreign Liquor) allotted to them every year in the grey market to exhaust surplus stocks. The issue was covered in detail by HT in the Gangs of Gurgaon series launched in February.

The surplus stock is also a reason why even liquor vends offer discounts and packages to customers.

However, the Haryana Excise and Taxation Department denied the charges.

“We have had some stray incidents where authorised liquor traders sell alcohol illegally in other states. Not all dealers fail to exhaust their annual quota. We cannot blame the entire industry,” an official said on the condition of anonymity.