One held with over 200 bottles of illicit liquor

An alleged smuggler was arrested with 211 bottles of spurious liquor, which had fake labels of the defence canteen, police said today.

The accused identified as 24-year-old Narendra Kumar, resident of Haryana's Chhara village, was arrested on July 8, said Chinmoy Biswal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (southeast).

He used to smuggle spurious liquor in branded bottles that had fake stamps of the defence canteen.

On July 8, a picket was laid at IIIT road near Okhla Phase-3 on the basis of a tip-off about the accused coming there.

Around 4:30 pm, a police team stopped a silver Wagon R car which was coming from Govindpuri Metro station. On checking the vehicle, a huge haul of illicit liquor was found inside the car, Biswal said.

Police seized 166 bottles of Officer's Choice Whisky, 22 Bottles of Old Monk and 23 Bottles of Mc Dowells No.1 Whisky with fake labels mentioning for defence services only" on the bottles, the DCP said.

The accused told police that in 2016, he came in contact with Bablu who used to work for another accused Rajesh who owned a liquor godown in Sonipat and used to supply liquor in Delhi and Haryana through his agents.

Bablu used to sell liquor through various agents to bootleggers in Delhi. To earn good revenue, Rajesh used to put fake defence canteen labels on liquor bottles because of their credibility, the DCP said.

Bablu used to take orders from bootleggers in Delhi and as per their demand, they used to put fake defence canteen labels on liquor bottles.

To lend credibility to their goods and to earn higher margins, the accused used to procure genuine empty bottles of various brands from ragpickers, the DCP said.

In their Sonipat godown, the accused used to dilute the original liquor with water and other ingredients to increase its quantity and in turn making it spurious. They would then fill the original branded bottles with the spurious liquor and then used fake labels of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) on them, he said.

Kumar used to get Rs 3,000 for every delivery of the consignment.

The accused persons used to buy second hand cars and never transferred their ownership. If they got into police trap or during police raid, they used to leave the vehicle, the DCP added.

Co-accused Rajesh and Bablu are absconding, he said.