Bootlegger who escaped nabbed

Apr 26, 2020, 04:06 IST

Surat: A team of operations group of Surat range IGP nabbed absconding bootlegger Vinod Varma alias Vinyo Bhaiyo from Valsad district on Friday night. The accused had escaped from the custody of Palsana police station here on Thursday night.
Varma was nabbed from Ramnagari in Vejalpor of Valsad at around 9pm on Friday. He was produced in a local court on Saturday and it sent him to judicial custody.
"Police had requested for his custody, but it was rejected. We are yet to find out how he managed to reach Valsad," a police officer said.
Varma was already in jail when Palsana police arrested him on transfer warrant in a 2016 case. He was produced in a court on April 22. The court had remanded him in police custody until April 25.
Police investigation has revealed that diverting the attention of policemen present in the police station, the accused had escaped. He managed to reach Valsad within a few hours despite police presence on main roads to enforce lockdown. Varma has bootlegging cases registered against him at many police stations across south Gujarat.
He had fired multiple rounds at a police team belonging to state monitoring cell (SMC) in November 2018. The SMC team had raided a spot where Varma was distributing liquor to his associates in Navsari. Varma was arrested by Surat city crime branch in January 2020.