Gurugram Police arrested a 41-year-old suspect on Sunday in connection with the recovery of a large consignment of illegal foreign liquor worth crores.
The suspect, who had allegedly fled abroadto evade arrest was arrested from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport upon his return, said police on Tuesday.
The suspect was identified as Sugreev Kumar, a resident of Nadhodi village in Fatehabad district. Police said Kumar is a 50% stakeholder in the wine shop where 3,921 cartons and 176 bottles of imported liquor which lacked mandatory holograms and track-and-trace strips were seized earlier this month.
On December 9, the excise department received a tip-off about large-scale storage of illegal foreign liquor at an L-2/L-14A wine shop located in Signature Tower (ZGRE-14). Following this, a special team conducted a raid and recovered the stock from two rooms within the shop premises. The seized liquor was found to be stored without payment of VAT or excise duty.
Based on a complaint and inventory submitted by the excise department, Sector 40 police registered a case under the Punjab Excise Act, 1914 (Haryana amended), Section 318 (4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for cheating, with links to wider smuggling from Delhi/Rajasthan of the Excise Act and took the liquor into custody. A special investigation team (SIT) was formed under the supervision of the deputy commissioner of police (crime), involving teams from the crime branch and Sector 40 police station.
During investigation, police found that Kumar had allegedly arranged the supply of illegal liquor through intermediaries along with his associates, with the intent of earning hefty profits by bypassing taxes and regulatory safeguards. Police said that post the raid, Kumar fled to Bali, Indonesia, on December 11 to avoid arrest. He was apprehended late Sunday night when he returned to India.
Police further revealed that the accused has a prior criminal record, with an excise-related case registered against him at DLF Phase-2 police station in Gurugram in 2011.
Supreme Court advocate Rajeev Yadav, who had been writing to excise for the last many months regarding the violations said, “The seizure of 40,000 bottles is not an isolated incident. Acting on my complaint, the deputy excise and taxation commissioner (DETC) found that several liquor vends for years had supplied IMFL and beer to bars at rates far above the prescribed limits.
Yadav said in official proceedings, these vends have admitted to supplying liquor above notified rates, yet violations spanning years are being treated as single-day breaches with token penalties. “When imported liquor and IMFL are sold far below MRSP at retail while bars are over-billed through pressure and coercion, selective enforcement raises serious questions. Licences of vends involved in non-TP supply and tax evasion must be cancelled,” he said.
Earlier on December 13, police had arrested Ankul Goyal, 40, who had 25% stake in the shop; Ajay Singh, 36, shop manager; Ajay, 26, driver involved in liquor delivery; and Manoj Kumar, 32, who allegedly prepared fake transport documents. With Kumar’s arrest, the total number of arrests in the case has now reached five.
Police said the accused will be produced before a court and on police remand for further questioning to identify other associates. Further investigation in the case is underway.