Journalism of Courage
A flying squad of the state excise department busted an illegal liquor manufacturing unit on Bhosari-Alandi road. Acting on a tip-off, the squad led by inspector Digambar Shevale, raided the unit at Magazine Corner in Wadmukh wadi at around 1.30 pm on Sunday. Police arrested seven people at the spot and seized booty including 1,000 litres of spirit, 600 litres of ‘blend’, thousands of bottles, labels and boxes having imprints of Indian and foreign liquor companies, electric motor, bottling equipments and other items, all worth Rs 27.91 lakh.
The arrested are Kamlesh Mevasingh (39), Devendra Vikram Singh (35), Shivpal Rajmukh Singh (42) Jaspal Ramesh Singh (26), Pradeep Bapurao Chavan (33), Shubham Jonval (22) and Vijay Vshnidas Vaishnav (27). Shevale said that most of the arrested hail from Madhya Pradesh and some from Beed district of Maharashtra.
[related-post]
The accused were working as labourers at the illegal unit owned by one Kishor Gosavi of Pimpri with the help of his aide Vinod Kalosia. Police have launched a search for the duo. The liquor manufacturing unit has been sealed. Primary investigation by the state excise department revealed that inter-state gangs are involved in the business.
“In the last three years, we have busted over 10 illegal liquor manufacturing units. In these cases, we recovered liquor that was transported to Maharashtra from other states only for bottling, packaging and selling. But the raid on Sunday recovered spirit and blend, which is highly inflammable. This is very dangerous. Probe is on to know from where they procured the spirit,” said Shevale.
Excise officials said that spirit is usually obtained from sugar factories and grain-based factories. It is diluted with water and the artificial smells of different brands of liquor to create blend, which is further bottled and sold either to illegal hotels and dhabas or even at licenced liquor shops. Later, this liquor is sold to customers at the cost of original brands. The racketeers not only cheat customers, but also evade taxes to the tune of crores of rupees.
The excise department has booked all seven under relevant sections of Bombay Liquor Prohibition Act, 1949. They were staying in Pimpri for the last two years and police said that some of them are history-sheeters.
