-SATISH HANDA
Teams of Excise Department led by Alok Passi DETC Ambala and police led by Sultan Singh DSP Headquarter jointly on a clue raided an illegal factory running in a animals shed manufacturing fake ‘Desi’ liquor at village Durana near Ambala and busted a racket illegally preparing fake liquor with the arrests of three persons Rakesh Kumar the mastermind, Prahlad resident of Ambedkar Nagar in U.P and Kuldeep Singh resident of Shahabad in Kurukshetra district. The raiding team seized 520 liter illicit liquor, 1350 liter Extra Neutral Alcohol (ENA), 40 liter spirit, 60 liter water and 50 liter chemical to give color of liquor, 26200 ‘Power’ brand stickers and 27500 labels, 15 empty drums and a tractor parked outside the premises.
Alok Passi DETC Ambala said, the raid was conducted on information that an illegal factory was running since past couple of months and Rakesh was smuggling fake liquor to U.P in his own vehicles impounded by the police and he had learnt the technique to manufacture liquor from a wine distillery in Punjab. Information revealed that prime accuse Rakesh was having about four cases of liquor smuggling registered against him in U.P and was on the bale at present.
State excise department as well as stat police started action against illegal manufactures of liquor in the state after the death of 47 persons at Panipat, Sonepat and Faridabad died after consuming spurious liquor manufactured with Methyl Alcohol few months ago, when it was identified that ENA was illegally being procured from Maharashtra, M.P and Punjab and supplied to the owner of a scientific goods manufacturer at Ambala who further supplied the same to manufacturers of spurious liquor and samples collected from manufacturers of fake liquor were sent to forensic laboratory Madhuban in Karnal district for examination.
Hamid Akhtar SP Ambala told that the arrested accused were produced in the court and remanded to police custody when police will try to find out from where ENA and spirit seized by the police was procured and action will be taken against the suppliers. He said, police arrested a liquor mafia at Ambala about four months ago running an illegal manufacturing unit at village Mandaur near Ambala City to produce fake liquor being smuggled to Bihar and Gujarat declared dry by the government as well as in U.P.
