Over 13k smuggled liquor bottles seized by excise department

Lucknow: In a major crackdown, the Excise Department confiscated 13,116 English wine bottles over a span of 48 hours, which were being smuggled into the state ahead of the festive season.
Fanning out at three different locations, excise and police officials, apprehended one retailer from the Natkur area of Bijnor, as well as four others involved in buying and transporting the liquor stock from Haryana.
During a routine check on Wednesday, officials intercepted two cars in the neighbouring Sitapur district. After being interrogated, Vishal Jaiswal, a resident of the Hasanganj locality in Lucknow, informed the officials about the involvement of a retailer from the Bijnor area. Vishal and his two accomplices, Shubham Jaiswal and Rahul Gupta, were subsequently booked by the police.
District Excise Officer of Lucknow, Rakesh Singh, said that a separate team was dispatched to inspect the premises of the shop in the Natkur locality. "We recovered 1,440 lower-priced English liquor bottles that were meant for sale in Chandigarh. More than 1,000 fake QR codes and 6,000 plastic caps of different brands, along with empty bottles, were found on the premises. A detailed inquiry is underway," Singh said.
While the shop was registered under the name of Premwati, who was also booked in the criminal case, Bijnor police later arrested her son, Himanshu Jaiswal, who was managing the shop.
Liquor patrons also need to be extra cautious while purchasing their favourite stock from liquor shops, as the retailer caught in the crackdown was found in possession of empty liquor bottles, labels, caps, and fake QR codes, apparently diluting expensive liquor with cheaper alternatives or selling undervalued English liquor to unsuspecting customers in bottles of expensive brands.
Meanwhile, a team, comprising excise inspectors Vivek Singh, Sanjiv Kumar Tiwari, Richa Singh, Laxmi Shankar Vajpayee, and Pradeep Bharti, coordinated to intercept a container truck in Itaunja at the Lucknow–Sitapur border late on Wednesday night.
The truck, bearing a Haryana registration plate, was found transporting 10,716 liquor bottles purchased from the neighbouring state, which were smuggled for distribution in Uttar Pradesh. Truck driver Rakesh Kumar and cleaner Sanjeev Kumar, both from Ambala, were also taken into custody.
Officials said that questioning and efforts were on to trace the owner of the container truck, as well as the names of retailers and middlemen involved in the smuggling ring.