Prayagraj: A joint team of Jethwara police and crime branch on Monday claimed to have busted a racket involved in the smuggling of Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) and country-made liquor near Derwa Bazar area and seized 147 cartons of IMFL and 10 cartons of the country made liquor bottles worth Rs 12 lakh.
The police also arrested two men on the charges of smuggling of illegal liquor bottles from Haryana.
The arrested persons have been identified as Abhay Singh and Sunny Srivastava and are residents of Sangipur and Ramgarh Derwa respectively. Police are also on the lookout for their accomplice identified as Dhirendra Singh alias Bengali, a resident of Kunda who managed to give a slip to police party. SP (Pratapgarh) Anurag Arya said, “A joint team of Jethwara police and crime branch acting upon a specific tip raided a godown located near an English wine shop near Derwa Bazar area where illegal and smuggled liquor from Harayana was stored.”
SP added that the racketeers used to sell these illegal consignments to the liquor shop and even take unfilled bottles from customers to get it refilled. Later, the racketeers mixed smuggled liquor and water in the bottles and sold it to the customers, earning hefty amounts. Meanwhile, SP ( Pratapgarh) has also suspended in charge of Derwa police outpost Satish Yadav on the charges of dereliction of duty.