Booze worth Rs 35 lakh seized, six booked

RAJKOT: Some 23,172 bottles of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) and 9,152 cans of beer, together worth Rs 35 lakh, were seized from a truck and two SUVs near Pathugadh village in Surendranagar district on Saturday.
Six persons have been booked for the offence. According to officials of the rapid response (RR) cell of Surendranagar police, they received tip-off about bootleggers gathering at Satwara Samaj ni Vadi in Pathugadh to take delivery of liquor from a truck and cut it into their shares.
“We raided the spot at Satwara Samaj ni Vadi and seized the IMFL bottles and cans of beer hidden in the truck.Besides the truck, we also seized the two SUVs in which the bootleggers arrived at the spot. However, the bootleggers seem to have got a whiff of the raid and made off before we got to the spot,” said Krunal Patel, the Surendranagar RR cell inspector.
The RR cell had prior information about the bootleggers involved in the crime, after which five bootleggers were booked. The accused are Vasant Vania, a resident of Pipdi village in Patdi taluka in Surendranagar district, Hasan Qureshi alias Patiyo and Hussein Qureshi, both residents of Pathugadh, the truck driver whose identity is yet to be ascertained, and two unidentified drivers of the two SUVs.