Dhabas in Mohali district under Excise Dept lens

Tribune News Service

Mohali, August 8

In order to keep a close vigil over pilferage of spirit/ENA from tankers, the Excise Department has initiated a drive to stop such illegal activities in the district. Joint teams of the Excise and Police Departments are making surprise checks at dhabas in Banur, Zirakpur and Dera Bassi.

The Mohali Deputy Commissioner (DC), Girish Dayalan said, “‘Manufacturing illicit liquor or ‘lahan’ is not the main problem in the district, but smuggling and pilferage of illicit spirit and extra neutral alcohol (ENA), the primary raw material for making alcoholic beverages, is a menace that needs to be curbed.”

“We held a meeting with owners of distilleries and bottling plants and have directed them to follow excise laws, failing which stern action will be taken against them,” the DC added.

“The teams have managed to recover large quantity of ENA and succeeded in arresting some major players in the past,” the DC informed.

“As many as 117 cases have been registered under the Excise Act and 131 accused arrested in seven months. Illicit spirit/ENA to the tune of 72,700 litres has been seized in less than 12 months,” the DC added.

Pertinently, the Excise Department detected a big cache of 5,500 litres of spirit/ENA at Devi Nagar village in Dera Bassi in July. In this case, Rajesh Kumar, alias Bobby, along with his two accomplices was nabbed for possessing large quantity of spirit/ENA without any licence.

In May, a history-sheeter liquor smuggler was caught and more than 50,000 litres of ENA was seized from his two tankers parked in Zirakpur. Lead came from Kumar Vaishnu Dhaba and recovery was made at Guru Nanak Dharam Kanda in Zirakpur.

Similarly, 15 drums of ENA (3,000 litres) were seized from Apna Dhaba in April.

Seventy one drums of the ENA (14,200 litres) were confiscated, whose lead came from Patiala Dhaba, Green Vaishnu Dhaba and Jhilmil Dhaba in Banur in August last year.

Also, in a joint raid conducted by the Excise and Police Departments at a house in Kheri village in July, Dera Bassi tehsil, 119 bottles of country liquor for sale in Haryana, 95 empty plastic bottles, 31,000 duplicate holograms, 900 caps of Royal Stag, 800 caps of PML, 415 labels of Chadha Sugars, Kiri Afgana, and one pressure pump were seized and FIR registered in this connection.