Gurgaon: Truck carrying illicit liquor seized, two held

The accused had placed a make-shift toilet inside the truck, with Swachh Bharat, written on its door, to hoodwink the police

The city police have arrested two men who used to smuggle liquor under the garb of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. The accused had placed a temporary toilet inside a truck with Swachh Bharat Abhiyan written on its door, so as to divert attention of the police. Behind the toilet there was a partition were liquor boxes were stored and the police recovered around 500 liquor boxes from that portion of the truck.

During a regular police check near Rajiv Chowk on Saturday, the police inspected the vehicle and the men were arrested.(HT PHOTO)

The accused have been indentified as Abdul Gaffar, a resident of Nuh, and Neeraj Tiwari, a resident of Allahabad. They were found to be allegedly transporting illegal liquor in a mini truck from Gurgaon to Etah in Uttar Pradesh.

During a regular police check near Rajiv Chowk on Saturday, the police inspected the vehicle and the men were arrested.

A case has been registered at the Sadar Police station under sections 420, 120B and 61-1-14 of the Excise Act.

“We found 490 boxes of ‘Crazy Romeo’ liquor in the truck. While inspecting the truck we also noticed that the men had only staged a temporary toilet unit,” said assistant sub-inspector Sanjay Kumar, crime branch unit of Sector 10, who is the investigating officer in this case. He said that the police became suspicious of the accused’s behaviour after which the vehicles was searched thoroughly.

A search for the owner of the truck and liquor is being conducted by the police. During investigation, the accused confessed that they had earlier made similar trips to Uttar Pradesh. They usually travel in the evening and come back in the morning, the police said.

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Police suspect that it might be a work of a big gang as the illegal supply of liquor from Haryana to various states in the country has gained momentum in the past few years.

On June 17, last year, Patna police had nabbed a gang involved in smuggling liquor into the state from Haryana. Similarly, on June 13, the Patna police had arrested 11 persons for allegedly collecting liquor from a supplier from Haryana.

On April 1 last year, Delhi police had seized a truck carrying 298 cartons of beer and arrested the driver for smuggling the liquor from Gurgaon to Noida.

On December 23, 2011, the Delhi police busted a gang that allegedly smuggled liquor in a fake ambulance. Three persons were arrested in this case and all of them hailed from Haryana.