‘VIP bootleggers’ carry hooch in cars with UP government insignia

LUCKNOW: Two smugglers selling illegal country-made liquor were arrested by Krishnanagar police in the wee hours of Sunday. They were transporting liquor worth lakhs of rupees in a car with number plates bearing the state government insignia.
The liquor smugglers had intentionally purchased the vehicle, a white Ambasador car, in an auction by the estate department, said police.
The arrested illicit liquor traders were identified as Rishi Jaiswal of Unnao and Vinit Shukla of Banthara in Lucknow.
The police team found 2,160 bottles containing 432 litre of country-made liquor stashed in the vehicle’s boot. The two liquor smugglers were nabbed near Vijaynagar turn by policemen clad in civvies.
Police said that since last one month they had been receiving complaints of illegally manufactured liquor being regularly transported from Banthara area through Krishnanagar after which a team was set up and asked to recce the possible routes.
SHO Krishnanagar Yashkant Singh said, “We had information about the gang transporting liquor in an auctioned government vehicle. In the wee hours of Sunday, as soon as the vehicle started its journey from Banthara via Kanpur road a police team in civvies started following it, later when it reached Vijaynagar turn we intercepted the vehicle,” he said.
Liquor bottles were recovered from the car during checking.
He also said that probe into manufacturing place of the liquor and the mafia of the illegal liquor business is yet to be cracked.
Shukla confessed that he had purchased the vehicle in an auction held by the state estate department in 2016. They were using the car without changing its number and appearance to dodge police during checking. He also disclosed that he had used the vehicle for transportation of liquor.