The Punjab Excise department in a joint operation with the police Sunday busted a racket of unauthorised manufacturing of liquor bottle caps used for illicit liquor bottling, on Sunday.
The factory owner, Samritpal Singh, alleged to be involved in manufacturing of these caps in Derabassi area was also nabbed, in ‘Operation Red Rose’
Naresh Dubey, Joint Excise Commissioner, Punjab, revealed that the Excise Department along with the police department has once again tightened the grip on the supply chain of important manufacturing constituents of illicit liquor so that their supply is choked and thus revenue of the state as well as the health of the people of Punjab can be secured.
“Secret information about bottle caps manufacturing unit operating in Hansa Industrial Park, Derabassi which is also involved in unaccounted manufacturing of liquor bottle caps in connivance with some notorious bottling plants manufacturing illicit liquor was received,” Naresh Dubey added.
He further added that the information was further developed and it was found that there seemed to be a nexus operating between the cap manufacturing unit operating in Derabassi and some liquor bottling units situated in Chandigarh.
“These bottling units used to get these caps purchased clandestinely in cash in an un-authorised manner. This unaccounted supply of caps was used to bottle illicit liquor which was later supplied to various parts of the country, including Punjab,” he added.
On the intervening night of June 24 and 25, a team from Excise Commissionerate Punjab and the Mohali Police raided the premises of M/s Sia Industry situated at Hansa Industrial Park, Barwala Road, Derabassi.
Naresh Dubey further stated that during the search, a big haul of liquor bottle caps was found manufactured and stored for which no supporting documents could be produced by the manufacturing unit.
Approximately two lakh caps of Sancheti Packaging Private Limited, Chandigarh were recovered for which no work order could be produced by Singh.
He also added that the record available in the premises showed that caps were sent to this bottling plant on a cash basis in an unaccounted manner, earlier as well.
These caps could be later on used for packaging illicit liquor. The record manager was also taken into custody for further probe into the racket where the end-user had connived with the manufacturer/supplier of the caps to get these caps manufactured in an illegal manner.
As such, this illegal manufacturing, storage, and sale of the caps is illegal and punishable as per section 63 -A, 24 -A and 61-(1)-14 of The Punjab Excise Act 1914.
In addition to it, approximately 20,000 caps of Sir Shadi Lal Distillery, Mansurpur (UP) were also found. During the course of the investigation, it was established through the Excise department of Uttar Pradesh that Sir Shadi Lal Distillery did not place any order for these caps to this manufacturing unit in Punjab.
Excise Commissioner, Rajat Aggarwal, informed that he had taken up the matter of suspected illegal bottling of liquor by some Chandigarh-based bottling plants with Excise Commissioner, Chandigarh. In view of the seriousness of the matter, he will take up the matter again with the Finance Secretary Chandigarh.
He added that the Punjab government had launched a centralised complaint number- 9875961126 to receive complaints regarding illicit liquor.
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