Gurugram: Illegal sale of liquor online, fake promises of doorstep delivery annoy vend owners, residents

The Gurugram excise and taxation department has received several complaints from liquor vend owners stating that people are using the name of their outlets to sell

The Gurugram excise and taxation department has received several complaints from liquor vend owners stating that people are using the name of their outlets to sell liquor online and are offering free home delivery. The police said several residents have also been cheated online by con men after paying money through e-wallets, the police said.

HT Image

Excise officials said that some people in upscale areas managed to get scotch and wine delivered at home but there were others who had paid in advance and were duped. Several residents of DLF Phase 1, South City, Sohna Road and Golf Course Road fell into the trap of “liquor home delivery” and lost nearly ₹4,000 in each case, the police said. Officials said they want to request people not to buy liquor through unreliable sources as it might be spurious and cause damage to health.

The Haryana government, on March 26, had decided to temporarily shut down all liquor vends across the state till further orders as part of its preventive measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

HC Dahiya, deputy excise and taxation commissioner (west), said that since the lockdown began, they formed teams to keep a check on all the 249 liquor vends across the district to ensure there was no black marketing. “Some people have created pages on social media and are advertising the sale of liquor and offering free home delivery. We have got these pages checked by the police and no retailer is involved. Their names have been used by some con men who are accepting orders online and taking advance payments for the delivery,” he said.

Excise officials said since the lockdown began, bootleggers have been trying to take advantage of the situation.

The officials reached out to at least two such sellers on Tuesday night and their pages had been deleted by Wednesday, Dahiya said.

“There were two online sellers active on social media. We wrote on their page that legal action would be taken against them for trading liquor online and even contacted them on the mobile phone numbers mentioned on the pages. Within a few hours, they deleted their pages and all the numbers have been switched off since then. I have also written to Facebook and Twitter,” Dahiya said, adding that the police are yet to identify the culprits.

Rajan Gandhi, director of Lake Forest wines, said they were shocked to see their brand name on the Facebook and Twitter pages. “None of the numbers belonged to us or any of our employees. Someone is cheating residents with our name so we approached the police and complained against the creator of the page,” he said.

Police commissioner Muhammad Akil said they would take immediate action against such con men duping people during the lockdown. They are posting advertisements offering home delivery of alcohol. “These men, after accepting money through e-wallets, do not answer their calls and in some cases, have delivered liquor a couple of times to gain the trust of people. We will get the locations and IP addresses used to create these pages. It takes at least five days to receive a reply from these social media platforms. Our teams are working on the complaint and the culprits will soon be arrested,” he said.

The police said residents should not call any such phone numbers and never proceed with financial transactions with the details or links provided by them, through online transfer or UPI platforms.