Pioneer News Service
Daltonganj
In a major crackdown on illicit liquor, Palamu Police on Thursday unearthed a clandestine bottling, packaging and distribution unit operating under the Panki police station limits, exposing what officials described as a full-fledged counterfeit liquor manufacturing and trading racket.
The operation was carried out at Jiro Tola in Baghmari village following specific intelligence received by Palamu Superintendent of Police Kapil Chaudhary. Acting on the tip-off, SDPO (Lesliganj) Prashant Kumar (II) led the police operation that culminated in the seizure of a large quantity of illicit liquor, spirit and counterfeit packaging materials.
Speaking about the raid, SDPO Prashant Kumar (II) said the police team identified a locked shop that appeared abandoned from the outside, making it unlikely to attract suspicion.
“Under the directions of the Superintendent of Police, our team tracked the premises. Though it looked like an abandoned shop from outside, the room inside had been converted into a complete bottling, packaging and dispatch unit for illicit liquor,” he said.
During the search, police seized 13 cartons containing 48 bottles each of illicit liquor, five gallon containers holding around 250 litres of spirit, a large quantity of counterfeit wrappers resembling popular English liquor brands, and more than 1,900 fake government excise stickers allegedly meant to facilitate the illegal sale of counterfeit liquor while evading government revenue.
The police also recovered over 1,500 empty liquor bottles, indicating that locally manufactured liquor was allegedly being repackaged and sold as branded Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL). A substantial quantity of colouring material used in liquor manufacturing was also seized.
The owner of the premises, identified as Lala Singh, is absconding, and efforts are underway to trace and arrest him.
