Imported liquor racket: Kingpin, 8 others booked in Mohali
According to police sources, four more boxes of imported beer were recovered from kingpin’s houses in Chandigarh’s Sectors 9, 35
A day after a team of the excise department, along with Mohali police, seized a pick-up truck smuggling 201 cartons of imported beer into Punjab, the two arrested men were produced in a Dera Bassi court and sent to three-day police remand.
The police on Friday also booked the gang’s kingpin Antar Preet Singh Sidhu, his two accomplices, Jaspal Singh and Som, and six unidentified people.
According to police sources, four more boxes of foreign beer were recovered from Sidhu’s houses in Chandigarh’s Sectors 9 and 35. Police are investigating the destination of this liquor.
On Thursday, police had arrested the pick-up truck driver, Somu, and Vishavjeet Singh Dhindsa of Malerkotla, who was escorting the truck in a Mahindra Scorpio. Apart from the 201 cartons in the truck, 1,400 more were recovered from the gang’s godowns in Mohali district.
The gang had been smuggling in liquor from Spain and Romania, and stored it in Mohali, before distributing it further in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Telengana, and Karnataka.
Joint excise commissioner Naresh Dubey said more raids were being conducted in Punjab and outside. Apart from the Excise Act, all accused have been booked under Sections 420, 468 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code.