Connoisseurs of imported liquor brands in the city may be in for a shock after reading this.
The recent raids conducted by Enforcement wing of the Prohibition & Excise (P&E) Department at Repalle in Guntur district, Yelamanchili in Visakhapatnam and Veeragatam in Srikakulam district revealed shocking facts that Indian Made Liquor (IML) is being adulterated and possibly could harm your health.
Yes, you heard it right. P&E officials busted three spurious liquor manufacturing gangs in Visakhapatnam, Guntur and Srikakulam districts and found that the accused were selling the refilled liquor in licensed liquor shops.
Director of Enforcement (P&E) K Venkateswara Rao said acting on a credible information that a few manufacturers were indulging in illegal practices, they busted three spurious liquor making rackets at Repalle (Guntur), Yalamanchili (Visakhapatnam) and Veeragatam (Srikakulam) within a span of a few days. They found that the unauthorised manufacturers are adding additives to the cheap liquor and refilling it in the new bottles of popular brands.
The modus operandi of the accused was to fill cheap liquor in the empty bottles of popular brands, seal them with fake caps and supply them to wine shops. “Since these brands are easily available to common public, they (manufacturers) refill them with cheap liquor by using fake caps and labels,” he said.
During a raid at Veeragatam, the enforcement team seized 290 nips (bottles), 17,000 duplicate caps of various brands and 346 empty bottles during a raid. Another 16,000 caps were destroyed by the accused at Vikrampuram village in Veeragatam mandal in Srikakulam district. Excise officials arrested 10 persons, including cap manufacturing company owner G Srinivas, transport company owner V Surya Narayana and Ch Chandrashekar Reddy, who was printing the labels of various brands. They are all natives of Hyderabad.
How the liquor mafia operates
– The spirit used to prepare the cheap liquor in Repalle was imported from Mumbai
– The refilled stock was supplied to wine shops in Vijayawada, Hyderabad and Adilabad
– Customers are being fooled as spurious liquor is refilled in the imported brand bottle and passed off as original
– According to officials, the gangs were operating for the last two years
– The government is cracking the whip on spurious liquor manufacturing gangs, which are supplying adulterated stocks to different states
– Excise officials are trying to find out their network in other states too
Excise teams are continuing raids across the State #KhabarLive
