Already overburdened with duties to mitigate the coronavirus crisis, sleuths of the Thane (rural) police have also rolled up their sleeves to tighten the screws on watering holes which are indulged in the illegal trade of liquor in the twin-city.
With the promulgation of lockdown due to the COVID-19 crisis, a complete ban has been imposed on sale of liquor in the state. Apart from a series of seizures in the recent past, the Navghar police impounded a car which was found to be carrying bottles of beer and Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) in Bhayandar on Friday evening.
Police personnel chased the car after spotting it coming out of the premises of a bar-cum-lodge in the Golden Nest area. However, the driver fled leaving the car behind after spotting a police barricade.
“Our investigating team is now taking help of the excise department to trace the source of the liquor consignment on the virtue of the details of the batch numbers printed on the labels of the liquor bottles,” said a senior police officer.
Meanwhile the car has been impounded and a case under the relevant sections of the IPC, Prohibition Act, Disaster Management Act, Epidemic Act and also under the provisions of the stringent Maharashtra COVID-19 rules has been registered against the yet-to-be identified driver.
