Gurgaon police have arrested the main accused behind a massive illegal foreign liquor racket worth nearly Rs 10 crore. The arrested man, Sugreev Kumar (41), is one of the owners of a liquor shop called ‘The Theka’, from where a huge quantity of untaxed imported liquor was recently seized.
According to the police, Kumar had fled to Bali, Indonesia, soon after the raid to avoid arrest. He was caught on Tuesday after landing at Delhi’s IGI Airport. During questioning, he admitted that he owned a 50 percent stake in the liquor shop.
Investigations by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) also revealed that Kumar has a criminal past. He was earlier booked under the Excise Act in 2011 at the DLF Phase-2 police station.
So far, five people have been arrested in the case. These include another stakeholder Ankush Goyal, who owns 25 percent of the shop, the shop manager Ajay, a delivery driver named Ajay, and Manoj, who allegedly created fake transport documents. One more stakeholder, a relative of Goyal, is still absconding.
The illegal operation came to light on December 9, after the excise department received a tip-off about a large stock of foreign liquor being stored illegally at a wine shop located in Signature Tower.
A joint raid by the police and excise officials led to the recovery of 3,921 cases and 176 bottles of foreign liquor hidden in two secret rooms. None of the seized bottles had mandatory holograms or track-and-trace labels, confirming that the stock was illegal.
