Contraband liquor worth Rs 51.71 lakh seized, 3 held

Three persons were arrested after liquor worth Rs 51.71 lakh which was prohibited for sale in Maharashtra was seized from a truck in the state's Thane district, an excise official said on Thursday.

Acting on a tip-off, excise officials intercepted a truck near a hotel on the Mumbai-Agra National Highway passing through Thane on Wednesday, inspector Sudhir Pokhale said.

Initially, the officials failed to trace the contraband but on a close examination of the vehicle, they found a concealed cavity behind the driver's cabin, he said.

On opening the cavity, they found 400 boxes of the smuggled liquor worth Rs 51.71 lakh in it, the official said.

The liquor was manufactured in Madhya Pradesh and prohibited from sale in Maharashtra, he said.

They excise officials initially arrested the truck driver. Later, based on information provided by him, they nabbed two more persons, including a man who was following the vehicle in a car as the stock belonged to him, he said.

The accused were booked under relevant penal provisions, he added.