MARGAO: Cracking down on the sale of spurious liquor, the Excise and Narcotics Department of Maharashtra raided three premises in Margao and seized goods worth Rs 5.5 lakh, including 48 cartons of liquor bottles, besides arresting three persons, on Sunday morning.
A team led by senior Inspector Subhash Jadhav, with the help of Margao police, raided a video parlour premises belonging to one Amonkar and recovered material used for packing spurious liquor.
“Two days back, we had intercepted a vehicle carrying 16,000 litres of ethanol spirit worth Rs 82 lakh and arrested Ravindra alias Ajay Mishra and Laxman Surendra Bahadur Thapa. Upon interrogation, the duo revealed that the spirit was being taken to Goa and the spurious liquor is being bottled at Khareband, Margao,” said Jadhav.
He continued, “As the CCP elections were underway, Goa Excise was unable to assist us, but we took the help of Margo police to raid a residential flat, a video parlour and a godown in an adjacent building in Khareband, Margao. We have arrested Jitendra Devendra Sing, Sunny Naresh Rajput and Bhavan Murji Gandhi.”
Jadhav also said that the sale of spurious liquor resulted in a loss of revenue for the state exchequer and that such illegal trades flourish due to political blessings.
“We have found unused cartons of liquor brands like Blenders Pride and Royal Stag and will investigate from where these cartons and packing material was procured by the culprits. We suspect that a much bigger consignment was shifted yesterday night from the residential flat,” said Jadhav.
Inspector Mukund Belendiker, who was part of the raiding team, informed that the police had information that Goa was the manufacturing and distribution hub of spurious liquor for Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Daman and Arunachal Pradesh. He added that the liquor was also sold in Goa and the mode of transport was mostly trucks and trains.
“This attached stock will be kept at our godown in Insuli, Maharashtra for further investigation,” he said.
It may be recalled that the same team from Maharashtra had raided the Fortune Distillery in Goa and arrested Mukesh Jain along with 40,000 litres of ethanol spirit two years ago.
