Story By Reporters Eye
SHIMLA. In the Mandi liquor tragedy the Special Investigating Team has busted the illicit liquor gang and arrested 3 more accused including the kingpin Gaurav Minhas alis Guru who belonged to Palampur in Kangra distt. Earlier police has arrestted four accused in the matter.
SP Mandi Shalini Agnihotri said on Saturday that three more accused Narender alias Kalu, Gaurav Minhas alias guru and Ajay kohli were arrested and produced before the court and they have been sent on police remand till 26th January. More than half a dozen people who were apprehended by the SIT are being interrogated, she added.In this case police have arrested seven accused so far.
During the investigation two illicit plants, one in Hamirpur and another in Nalagarh was also found. SP Shalini said that more arrests can be made. It all depends on what will be revealed by the accused during the interrogation . .
On the other hand Director General of Police Sanjay Kundu today on Saturday claimed that SIT has busted the illegal liquor racket responsible for the Mandi liquor tragedy and arrested the kingpin.
In a online press conference Kundu said that deaths have been caused by either Improper mixing of the ingredients by the 2 persons responsible for mixing in the illicit factory in Hamirpur Part of the spirit procured for production of liquor may be impure and have contained methyl alcohol instead of ethyl alcohol. The above is a matter of investigation and a clearer picture will emerge after collection of all evidence and interrogation of all accused, he added .
He said that It was revealed during the investigation that Goru was running an illicit bottling unit at Hamirpur in collusion with Praveen Thakur from Hamirpur. The raw material for production and packaging was received from other persons belonging to different states.
He said that one Sagar Saini belonging to Delhi provided the spirit drums and AK Tripathi belonging to Samba, Jammu and Kashmir provided the formula. The illicit bottling unit in Hamirpur is run by two persons belonging to UP, who do the mixing of ingredients for the manufacture of liquor. Water for the above unit is procured from Hamirpur and empty bottles are procured from a kabadi in Hamirpur while Bottles, caps, boxes and cartons are procured from Parwanoo.he added
DGP further said that Spirit is procured from one Sagar Saini in drums. The last procurement was 25 drums. VRV Santra stickers are made through a graphic designer. and Bottling plant equipment was procured from Chandigarh.
. There were links with J & K as some material was procured from there
Kundu said that during investigation it was found that an illicit liquor factory was operating in Hamirpur District, with inputs and raw materials procured from within and outside the State. Gaurav Manhas appears to be the kingpin of the illegal trade. Gaurav with the assistance of Praveen from Hamirpur, Pushpender and Sunny from UP, was running this illegal bottling plant at Hamirpur in the building owned by Praveen (their roles are being investigated further). In addition to this, Manu and Gagan (their roles are being investigated further) were his partners in the illegal bottling plant busted under the jurisdiction of Police Station Nalagarh.
DGP claimed that Gaurav has a very strong network of distributors and supply chain for the raw materials and finished illicit liquor. The racket included the major partners: Gaurav Manhas alias Goru (kingpin) Praveen (owner of the building used as an illegal bottling plant) Pushpender and Sunny (workers in the plant) Manu and Gagan (prime suspects in Nalagarh case) he claimed.
He said that the prime suspect in the matter Narender alias Kalu R/o Village Maloh was on the run since the incident but was arrested by the local police during the intervening night of 20th and 21st January, . He was interviewed in detail and he revealed that the main supplier of this illicit liquor consignment is one Goru from Palampur. The local team then started to locate the whereabouts of Goru and his location was found to be at Zirakpur. Immediately, a local team was dispatched to Zirakpur, who apprehended Goru from a hotel on 21st January.His search was carried out and 3 bottles of essence, diary etc were seized from him.
Seizer made
The SIT made the searches and seizures in Hamirpur and seized more than 6000 bottles filled with illicit liquor labeled as “VRV Fools Pvt. Ltd.”, five plastic tanks (300 lts each), seven boxes containing bottle caps marked “VRV foods Ltd.”, nine plastic drums (50 lts each), one carton containing 136 strips of labels marked “Santra, VRV Fools Pvt. Ltd.”, 124 sheets containing more than 2500 holograms, 18 plastic tag rolls marked VRV Foods, one carton containing four bottles (500 ml each) one jerry cans (5 lts) containing flavor, two plastic tubs, three plastic mugs, one steel stainer, one plastic funnel, three aluminum karchhi, , two bottle sealing machines, one plastic jerry can filled with coloring material for the illicit liquor, 56 plastic bags filled with more than 2500 empty bottles, more than 2000 empty cartons marked “VRV Foods Ltd”, one bottle filling machine, one liter measure, one syringe measuring 60 ml, two hydrometers, two thermometers, seven stamps marked with impression of Batch No. 61, 62 and 361, 33 distilled water plastic containers (20 lts each) These items were seized from the illegal premises busted at Panyala village, Hamirpur.
DGP said that the premises was marked as “Rainbow Café” was being run in collusion with one Praveen resident of Village Panyala, Hamirpur, Pushpender and Sunny of Bhawanigarhi, Aligarh UP,
The the search of premises of Goru at Palampur, led to seizure of – more than 25 lac rupees in cash, six labels marked “VRV Fools Ltd”, 6000 holograms strips, impression of stamp marked with Batch No., other documentary evidence – invoices, diaries which are being investigated further. 3.
Another plant in Nalagarh
DGP said that at the instance of accused Goru, another illegal bottling plant was located under Police Station Nalagarh which was subsequently informed to and raided by local police from Police District Baddi. As per examination of Goru, this set up is apparently run by another similar illegal liquor production gang. A separate case FIR under Excise Act has been regd in this matter in Police Station Nalagarh. The seizures made include around 4500 empty bottles, 39 drums, 47 empty VRV cartons and other incriminating materials
he said that as per examination of Goru and evidence recovered from his possession and his house search, it was found that illegal liquor boxes were supplied to various distributors, which are in Kangra District – 450 boxes, Una District 145, Hamirpur District 120, Bilaspur District – 535, and in Mandi District 150 boxes .
Local police teams are making searches and seizures in this regard in respective districts, he said .
DGP said that The suppliers of holograms, labels, cartons, used bottles, spirit, bottles caps and raw material for the production of illicit liquor have been identified and apprehended during searches in districts Kangra, Solan, Hamirpur and neighboring states. The important persons related to this case are being examined including – Sagar Saini from Ambala, AK Tripathi from Samba, Ajay Sharma from Parwanoo, Prakash Chand from Parwanoo..
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