Samples have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for testing after the police found the labels and batch numbers to be forged. (Representational Image)
The Vadodara Local Crime Branch (LCB), in a day-long raid at a farm house in Waghodia taluka, seized 461 cartons of liquor worth Rs 22 lakh. The raid was carried out at the farm house in Dudelav village on a tip-off that a huge consignment of liquor was stored there.
During the raid, police recovered 461 cartons of various brands of liquor. Police also arrested the caretaker of the farm house, Deepak Jaiswal. Another accused, Shailesh Kahar, who was also present at the farm house, managed to flee. Jaiswal confessed that the liquor was brought to the farm house by three other accused Mehul Kahar, the owner of the farm house, Vipul Chavda and Shailesh, who are natives of Vadodara city. They are yet to be arrested.
All the accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 467 (forgery of valuable security, will), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 474 (having possession of a document, knowing it to be forged), 482 (punishment for using a false property mark) and 120 B (whoever is a party to a criminal conspiracy), as well as under relevant sections of the Prohibition Act.
The 461 cartons of liqour worth Rs 22,12,800 included 280 cartons of 3,360 bottles of whiskey with packing label from Punjab worth Rs 13,44,000, 155 cartons of 1,860 bottles of liqour packaged from Haryana worth Rs 7,44,000, 24 cartons of Royal Stag whiskey with 288 bottles worth Rs 1,15,200 and two cartons of Royal Challenge whiskey with 24 bottles worth Rs 9,600.
Samples have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for testing after the police found the labels and batch numbers to be forged. “We are looking for the other three accused. The consignment was kept hidden for the past four days. We are investigating the source of the consignment. There is a complete possibility that the liqour is duplicate and they were labelling them with forged batch numbers and labels to sell it further. We can confirm that once the FSL report is in,” said investigating officer, DB Vala.