Illegal liquor factory busted in Shahzadpur; four arrested, massive seizure made

AMBALA: The police in Haryana’s Ambala district have busted an illegal liquor manufacturing unit operating out of a rented house in a colony of Shahzadpur town. The raid resulted in the seizure of a massive quantity of illicit liquor and related materials, and the arrest of four individuals involved in the operation.
During the raid, four men—Gurpreet Singh of Uprali-Dhamauli village, Surinder Singh of Bapauli village, Sandeep and Sachin of Govindpur village—were found and arrested at the site. Upon questioning, the four disclosed that the illicit factory was owned by Bittu of Dhanana village.
Acting on a tip-off received late Wednesday night, a police team led by Shahzadpur police Station House Officer (SHO) Jitender Dhillon raided a rented property near Modern City Colony in the town. Inside, they discovered an illegal liquor production unit in full operation.
The police seized 109 boxes of spurious country-made liquor (desi), labeled under the brands Punjab Rasila Santra Marka, Masti Malti Marka and Asli Mota Santra Marka. Notably, none of the boxes carried batch numbers.
In addition, the team confiscated 540 litres of spirit (stored in three drums containing 250, 160, and 130 litres, respectively; 9,600 empty bottles; 6,400 bottle caps (leads); 2,050 empty liquor packaging boxes; 12 large and 30 small empty drums, wrappers, holograms, QR codes, and other packaging materials, two machines used for sealing bottle caps. The bottle leads bore the names of two distilleries, which are now under scrutiny.
Following the raid, ASI Narayan Singh of Shahzadpur police station lodged a complaint. A case was registered at Shahzadpur police station on Thursday early morning against the five individuals under Sections 110, 274, 318(4), 336(3), 338, 340, and 61 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with Section 61 of the Punjab Excise Act, 1914 (as amended by the Haryana Amendment Bill, 2020).
SHO Jitender Dhillon stated that the raid was part of an ongoing crackdown on the sale and production of illegal liquor in the district, following directives from SP Ajit Singh Shekhawat.
“The four arrested individuals were presented in court today and have been remanded to four days of police custody for further interrogation,” SHO Dhillon added.