Thane: Excise dept seizes spurious IMFL & items worth Rs 26.82 lakh

The Thane excise department on Thursday, August 25 swooped on a warehouse in Shahapur in Thane district and seized spurious Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) of Goa made of various well-known brands worth Rs 26,82,050 and also arrested one person, said a police officer from the state excise department flying squad on Friday.

Excise department commissioner Kantilal B Umap said, "We received a tip-off from our sources and also received a complaint from RV Khemnar, a resident of Thane. Acting on the complaint, a team of sleuths raided a premises at Virwadi in Shahapur late on Thursday night.

Nilesh Sangde, Superintendent of Excise (Thane) said, "The flying squad team of the excise department stumbled upon huge quantities of IMFL bottles or tins stored in almost 123 boxes hidden in the warehouse. The boxes were opened to reveal hundreds of bottles of fake IMFL of several leading brands like Royal Challenge, Imperial Blue, Royal Stag, McDonald No.1 and other international labels intended for sale as genuine at exorbitant prices in the local markets."

"The spurious liquor is worth a total of around Rs 16.50 lakh and the prime accused, Vaibhav P. Shelar (31), has been arrested. The flying squad team also seized a Mahindra Bolero Pick-Up number MH-48-BM-1369 worth Rs 5,25,000 and a Maruti Swift number MH-02-BJ-3900 worth Rs 4,75,000, making the overall amount seized worth Rs 26,82,050. Other items which were seized were equipment and materials used to make the fake beverages and transport them to unsuspecting customers," he further added

Sangde informed, "The further investigation is on to trace the other associates of Shelar and also to find out how far the racket of brewing and selling such fake liquor is spread in Maharashtra or across the state borders."