Illegal liquor bottling plant busted in Badal village, was located in an orchard; 3 held

Archit Watts
Tribune News Service
Muktsar, May 22

A joint team of the Excise Department and the Punjab Police today claimed to have busted an illegal liquor bottling plant being run from an orchard at Badal village. Three persons have been arrested.

The orchard is owned by Paramjit Singh Lali Badal who is related to former CM Parkash Singh Badal. Paramjit Singh Lali said he had given the plant on lease to a private company in 2018. “I have nothing to do with this plant. I have given the documents to the officers,” he said.

ENA seized

• As much as 2,200 litres of ENA and fake labels of major brands seized
• The illegal plant was being run under guise of an authorised bottling plant, claims Excise Department
• Illicit liquor was being filled in empty bottles of expensive brands

Naresh Dubey, Joint Commissioner, Excise, said the illegal bottling plant, being operated from seven rooms of a building located on the orchard premises, was being run under the guise of an authorised bottling plant situated nearby.

The raiding team said about 2,200 litres of extra neutral alcohol (ENA), thousands of filled and empty bottles, fake holograms, labels, caps and cartons of some major brands of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) and country-made liquor of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Daman and Diu were recovered. “We had a tip-off that the ENA will be supplied today. We raided and found a huge stock of ENA and fake labels, holograms, cartons, etc, stored in the building,” said Dubey.

He said bottles of some brands like Royal Shot, Imperial Gold, Blue Legacy, Blue Cat and Big Barrel were recovered. “The illicit liquor was being filled in empty bottles of some expensive brands. Excise Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal is supervising the operation,” said Dubey.

Among those arrested are bottling plant’s accounts manager Anand Sharma, a resident of Bathinda; Pargat Singh of Lalbai village and Jashan Singh of Kheowali village here. A case has been registered at the Lambi police station.

Excise sources said they had been receiving complaints about the plant for the past about six months. A number of such illegal plants have earlier been busted in other parts of Punjab, including Patiala and Ludhiana.