The police have seized alcohol worth ₹1.15 crore from a godown at Indira Nagar in Turbhe MIDC in the early hours of Wednesday.
“The night patrolling team on Tuesday received information that two containers were seen near a godown in the area. Hence, we raided the godown around 2 a.m. on Wednesday,” senior police inspector Amar Desai from Turbhe MIDC police station said.
On searching the vacant godown, they found crates of alcohol in the watchman’s cabin and in a parked container, which had a Rajasthan number plate.
As many as 1,596 crates with 55,584 bottles of beer, brandy and whiskey of various brands, worth ₹1.14 crore, and the container were seized. “The crates mention that the alcohol is for sale only in Haryana. Upon contacting the excise department, we learnt that by illegally transporting these bottles without any procedure, they have evaded excise duty of close to ₹63 lakh,” Mr. Desai said.
The police suspect that half the alcohol was transported earlier and the second half was moved on Tuesday night, when they received the tip-off.
The driver of the container, Mukesh Kumar Nandram Yadav (40), a resident of Rajasthan, and the watchman of the godown, Sonu Ganeshlal Shrivastav (30), a resident of Ganpatipada in Turbhe MIDC, have been arrested. The duo has been booked under Sections 65 (illegal import of intoxicant), 83 (conspiracy), 86 (allowing any premises to be used for purpose of committing an offence) and 108 (import, export of intoxicant without payment of duty) of Maharashtra Prohibition Act 1949.
“We are interrogating them to find out who is behind this illegal transportation of alcohol. They will be produced in court on Thursday,” Mr. Desai said.
