UP STF busts another gang of illicit liquor suppliers in Rae Bareli

According to a police officials, the Rae Bareli gang was behind the supply of rectified spirit and adulterated countrymade liquor which was made by mixing rectified spirit and urea and later sold as branded country made liquor in 13 districts.

The UP special task force (STF) busted another gang of illicit liquor suppliers in RaeBareli on Sunday. It seized 5,250 litres of rectified liquor and arrested seven persons in this connection.

Sixteen cartons of branded country made liquor were among the recoveries made by the UP STF in Rae Bareli on Sunday, June 16, 2019. (HT Photo / Representative Image)

The STF also seized 24,500 empty bottles of branded countrymade liquor, meant to be refilled with adulterated liquor, besides over one lakh of QR (quick response) code slips, 16 cartons of branded country made liquor, bottle caps, a packaging machine and two bags of urea that was to be mixed with the adulterated liquor to make it more potent.

Senior superintendent of police (SSP), STF, Abhishek Singh said those arrested were identified as the gang leader Suraj Lal alias Sushil Yadav, Ram Tirath Yadav, Brijesh Kumar, Rahul Kumar, Surya Bhan Singh, Ratnesh Mishra and Dharmendra Kumar.

He said the recoveries were made from the houses of Ram Tirath Yadav near Palesar crossing and Surya Bhan Singh’s house in Nawabganj, Badhokhar of Raebareli. He said the raids were carried out on a tip off from the gang members who were arrested from Kanpur on Saturday.

The SSP said the Rae Bareli gang was behind the supply of rectified spirit and adulterated countrymade liquor which was made by mixing rectified spirit and urea and later sold as branded country made liquor in 13 districts.

He said a large number of seized QR codes and caps of different brands of liquor bottles were to be used after refilling and packaging of liquor bottles and supplied to the authorised liquor shops.

He said the districts where this gang was active included Barabanki, Sitapur, Lucknow, Kanpur Nagar, Kanpur Dehat, Pratapgarh, Amethi, Sultanpur, Banda, Fatehpur, Chitrakoot, Unnao and Raebareli.

Earlier on Saturday, the STF busted a similar gang in Kanpur’s Babupurwa area after arrest of four people including the gang leader Chandan Joshi. The gang smuggled the rectified liquor from different places in Delhi and Haryana and sold it to illicit liquor manufacturers after dumping it in rented godowns in Kanpur. The STF teams seized around 2,000 literes of rectified spirit from a godown in Babupurwa police station limits.