1 held from Nashik for selling chemical used in illicit liquor

A police officer, privy to the probe, said, “A little fluctuation in the quantity of the chemical can make the toddy poisonous. It is being supplied to various toddy stalls across Mumbai.”

Officers from the Khar police and the Aarey police seized 3,500kg of chloral hydrate worth Rs 70 lakh from a Nashik factory on Friday and arrested the factory owner, 56-year-old Dilip Jadhav. The chemical is a sedative and was being smuggled to Mumbai to make spurious liquor.

Officers from the Khar police and the Aarey police seized 3,500kg of chloral hydrate worth Rs 70 lakh from a Nashik factory on Friday and arrested the factory owner, 56-year-old Dilip Jadhav.

A police officer, privy to the probe, said, “A little fluctuation in the quantity of the chemical can make the toddy poisonous. It is being supplied to various toddy stalls across Mumbai.”

The case came to light after the police seized 2,184 kg of chloral hydrate worth Rs 45 lakh from a warehouse in Aarey Colony, Goregaon (East). The police had arrested Buniyad Ansari, the owner of the warehouse, along with Venkaya Karbuja and Rajendra Busrupa – the men who supplied the chemical to make the liquor at various places in the city.

On May 8, another accused, Prakash Gopwani, 40, was also arrested. “We had information about the factory. But Gopwani’s arrest confirmed the link between the Goregaon warehouse and the Nashik factory,” said police inspector Daya Nayak from Khar police station, who headed the raid.

Gopwani’s aide – Shailesh Thakur – is absconding.