Three people including two bootleggers and the auto-rickshaw driver were nabbed after a filmy-style chase by a police team in Uttan. A night patrolling team spotted a suspicious-looking auto-rickshaw near Stella Morris hospital. The police personnel signaled the driver to stop but he dodged the team and sped away in a reckless manner.
However, the cops gave chase and intercepted the auto-rickshaw in true filmy-style, a few meters away near the overhead water tank in the Maldongri area of Uttan.
Upon checking the police found five gunny bags stuffed with 200 litres of illicit liquor (haath Bhatti) worth Rs. 20,000. The auto-rickshaw driver identified as Vishal Gharat (27) and the other two occupants Ram Pandit Aadi (29) and Vaibhav Gajanan Patil (23), all residents of Vadghar area in Bhiwandi were taken into custody and booked under the relevant sections of the Maharashtra Prohibition Act, 1949.
After rounds of sustained interrogations, the trio revealed that they were ferrying the illicit liquor from Bhiwandi to a person identified as Glenn Hendricks who stays in Uttan.
The police seized the illicit liquor consignment and impounded the auto-rickshaw. After the recent crackdown by the excise and police personnel to weed out illicit liquor brewing units in the rural and coastal areas in the Bhayandar-Uttan belt, the notorious mafia seems to have started smuggling hooch from neighbouring cities. Meanwhile a team from the Uttan coastal police station is conducting further investigations into the case.
