The state excise department has formed a team of 15 members to investigate the racket of selling duty-free liquor by using letters issued by foreign consulates.
The state excise department has formed a team of 15 members to investigate the racket of selling duty-free liquor by using letters issued by foreign consulates. The officials from the excise are investigating whether these letters are official or fake and are expected to file FIRs against the accused soon.
Three days ago, acting on a tip off, a team of excise department officials had busted a duty-free liquor racket. They raided three places in Mumbai including two in Worli and one in Walkeshwar where the accused had stocked liquor bottles.
Subhash Jadhav, an excise department official who is investigating in this matter, said, “ We have made team of 15 and each has been given a different set of responsibilities to work on. There are some letters that we had retrieved from the car of one of the accused, Narayan Patel, which was supposedly issued by the consulates, authorising them to get and transport duty-free liquor. We are probing whether these documents are authentic or fake. We have sent letters to Afghanistan, Argentina and Bangladeshi consulates asking them to verify the authenticity of the letters.” The official also said, “There are 94 bottles of high brands scotch were seized in this raid worth Rs 19,62,000.”
Five persons Narayan Babhniya, Vijay Yadav, Narayan Patel, Nitin Gurav and Bacchu Chandat (Patel), have been held for illegal sale of liquor.
