TN prohibition wing busts gang selling adulterated liquor

VILLUPURAM: The prohibition enforcement wing (PEW) on Wednesday busted a 10-member gang involved in smuggling Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) from Puducherry and selling it in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu after adulterating it with essence.
PEW sleuths arrested the gang during a vehicle check at Valathi bus stand near Gingee.
Around 1,400 Puducherry-made IMFL bottles , three cars and three motorcycles were seized from the accused. Police also detained two land owners suspecting their involvement in the racket.
The arrested men have been identified as prime accused M Balakrishnan, 38, of Kodungiyur village, P Pandiyan, 36, R Ranjith, 22, A Shagul Hameed, 19, A Anandh Raj, 23, V Balu, 53, G Ajith Kumar, 24, P Madhan, 25, M Ajith Kumar, 24, and P Velangkannan, 28, from Karaikal, Cuddalore, Chennai and Valathi. The ppolice refused to reveal the identity of the two detained land owners.
Police said based on the direction by Villupuram superintendent of police S Jayakumar to monitor smuggling of liquor into the district, a team headed by Villupuram and Kotakuppam PEW inspectors Renukha Devi and Vishnu Priya conducted a vehicle check.
Around 6am on Wednesday, the team intercepted three cars and two motorcycles. Following a check, they identified that the occupants of the vehicles belonged to the same gang and were smuggling 27 cartons of 180 ml bottles and eight cartons of 750 ml bottles in the vehicles.
Interrogation with the accused revealed that Balakrishnan had been running a tire retreading unit at Muruganthangal junction road for more than a year and had used the rented shop for stocking the IMFL bottles and running a fake liquor unit in the shop.
Police, who booked a case against the gang, were holding further investigations to ascertain if the accused had supplied the adulterated liquor to Tasmac outlets.