Punjab Excise department on Wednesday busted an organised module selling smuggled imported Scotches without holograms in Amritsar district and seized 2150 cases of illicit liquor.
Giving the details, excise commissioner Punjab, Rajat Agarwal, said the excise department had received secret information that few persons are involved in selling smuggled and non-duty paid expensive imported brands of scotches and imported beer in Amritsar and adjoining areas evading the excise duties and levies, which caused huge loss to the state exchequer.
He said acting on the tip-off immediately, the team of special operation group of excise department swung into action and conducted a recce of the suspected persons involved in the trade. The two suspects accused had set up two illegal godowns in Amritsar where huge quantities of expensive imported liquor brands are illegally stored and the accused have a stake in the liquor business in some groups in Amritsar.
Liquor smuggled from Chandigarh having holograms of Chandigarh was also found from the godowns. Some cases of liquor had the holograms of Punjab state pasted over the Chandigarh holograms, which shows that the accused even smuggled the liquor from Chandigarh and tried to paste Punjab holograms over it in order to make it look like genuine duty paid liquor of Punjab state.
This liquor was allegedly being sold through a network of bootleggers or to marriage palaces and bars thereby causing loss to the state exchequer. Multiple teams were called in from other districts to take stock of godowns and thorough checking of recovered stock was done by teams, Agarwal said.