The Goan Network
PANAJI
A team of the Crime Branch of Goa Police on Monday apprehended a container truck loaded with spurious liquor approximately worth Rs 30 lakh at Honda, Sattari.
After pursuing and verifying suspicious vehicles throughout the night, the police team found a heavy good vehicle bearing registration number MH-14-V-5919 early in the morning on Monday.
The vehicle was parked on the local ground opposite the Bus Body Department gate of ACGL at Bhedshiwada in Honda. The driver appeared to have become suspicious and abandoned the vehicle.
The seized liquor and the truck were brought to the Crime Branch Police Station in Ribandar for further action. The attached liquor bottles are scheduled to be handed over to the Office of the Commissioner of Excise for further action at their end as the matter relates to illegal storage and transportation of liquor.
During the search of the vehicle, the police found that the keys of the truck and the container lock were in the driver’s cabin.
Based on the Registration Certificate book of the vehicle, the police have traced the identity of the vehicle owner, one Asha Desai from Mulshi, Pune.
During the panchnama, 425 boxes of Officer’s Choice (Reserve Whiskey) with 48 bottles in each box were found along with 78 boxes of Honey Grade brandy containing 48 bottles each. In total, 20,400 bottles of Officers Choice to the tune of Rs 28,56,000 and 3,744 bottles of the brandy worth Rs 93,600 have been seized during the raid.
The brands of liquor seized from the truck are not sold in Goa and one particular unit is believed to be producing it illegally.
Commissioner of Excise Shashank Tripathi has taken a serious note of this seizure worth Rs 29.49 lakh and subsequently deputed his excise superintendent Milagres Soares to take details of liquor attached.
The Crime Branch is in the process of identifying the persons involved in this organized trade of illegal storage and transportation of duplicate liquor.
The action was executed under the guidance and supervision of Superintendent of Police (Crime) Shobbhit Saxena and DySP Sunita Sawant by Crime Branch team headed by PI Dattaguru Sawant, Head Constable Dinesh Pikulkar, PC Kiran Parab and Naveen Palyekar.
