LPG tanker caught ferrying illicit liquor worth ₹1.25cr

Indore: Continuing its crackdown against bootleggers, Dhar police on Monday caught a tanker meant to transport inflammable LPG but instead being used to carry illicit liquor worth Rs 1.25 crore.According to senior police officials, a team from Sadalpur police station, acting on a tip off, stopped a tanker that was designed and meant to transport inflammable liquid petroleum gas (LPG) on Lebad-Nayagaon Fourlane near Baggad. During the search, the cops recovered more than 1,000 boxes of Indian-made foreign liquor, worth of which was stated to be around Rs 1.25 crore.TI Vishwajeet Singh Parihar told mediapersons that while the tanker’s driver managed to flee the spot, the team took help of experts to open the loading vehicle’s chamber to seize the illicit liquor. “A case has been registered while further investigation is on” he said.Dhar, which has some distilleries of big liquor brands, is also known as a ‘den of bootleggers’, who mainly transport illicit liquor to neighboring districts of Gujarat as alcohol is banned there but demand remains constant. The district had made a headline last month when two administrative officials including an IAS officer had sustained injuries as they tried to intercept a truck carrying illicit liquor at Dholia Fata in Dhar’s Kukshi Tehsil.During this, some identified persons reached the spot in a four-wheeler, allegedly thrashed SDM and IAS officer Navjeevan Singh Panwar and Naib-tehsildar Rajesh Bhide and broke the windscreen of their cars. The miscreants had also abducted Bhide in their vehicle but meanwhile, local police reached the spot, forcing the accused to flee the spot by leaving naib-tehsildar there.Apart from taking legal actions against the bootleggers, the administration had demolished their illegal constructions.