3 held for smuggling liquor

Tribune News Service

Mohali, December 12

The sleuths of the Excise and Taxation Department here have nabbed three persons and recovered 40 cartons of liquor from their possession late on Tuesday night.

Excise and Taxation Officer Vinod Pahuja said acting on a tip-off, they had set up a naka near Chappar Chiri. He said the team directed the Hyundai Accent of Ola company to stop and recovered 20 cartons of country-made liquor from the dickey of the car.

He said accused Rakesh Kumar, a resident of Cholta Khurd village, and Mangat Singh revealed that they had brought the consignment from Chandigarh and were to take the same to their village. A case has been registered against the two under the Excise Act at the Balongi police station.

Meanwhile, Ola spokesperson said, “We can confirm that the incident did not occur on the Ola platform. Upon receiving information about one driver who happened to be enlisted with us, we terminated his access to the platform immediately”.

Pahuja said in the second case, a rashly driven Indigo was directed to stop at a naka near Phase VIII-IX light point in Mohali. During checking, 20 cartons of liquor were recovered from the car driven by Ranjit Singh, a resident of Cholta Khurd village. A case has been registered under the Excise Act at the Phase VIII police post.

He said the department had recovered a fine of Rs 2 lakh from Rakesh Kumar for illegally carrying 12 bottles of Indian-made foreign whisky.

Similarly, Rs 11 lakh fine had been recovered as compounding amount from various cases in the district so far.