Illegal liquor factory busted in Haryana; 4 held

In an inter-state operation, the Gautam Buddh Nagar police Wednesday claimed to have helped bust an illegal liquor factory in Haryana's Gurgaon, officials said.

Police in the district's Greater Noida had Tuesday intercepted a vehicle and seized 30 cartons of illegal liquor from it. Four people, including two women, were arrested, they said.

During further probe, it was found that the liquor bottles bearing fake barcodes and labels of various brands were procured from a factory in Gurgaon for sale in western Uttar Pradesh, police said.

"With the gathered information, a joint team of police from the Knowledge Park police station and the Excise Department raided the factory in Gurgaon on Wednesday," a police official said.

"We seized 2,000 pints of illicit liquor, a tanker filled with 200 litres of liquor, around 5,000 empty bottles, packing and wrapping machines, fake barcode stickers in huge quantity, among other items from there," he said.

Those arrested have been identified as Prince Bhatia, Tilakraj Bhatia and two women (identity withheld by the police), the official added.

A case has been registered at the Knowledge Park police station under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery) and related offences. They have also been booked under the provisions of the Excise Act, police said.

The Gautam Buddh Nagar police had last month busted an illegal factory operating in Ghaziabad's Tronica city area. During the raid carried out by a team from Sector 24 police station, around 15,000 litres of illicit liquor were seized and six people arrested. The factory's key operators were arrested later.