Illegal distillery in Aravallis busted, 7 arrested

Gurugram: The Gurugram Police on Tuesday raided an illegal liquor distillation plant in the Aravallis near Sohna and arrested seven people including a minor. The police also seized 1,600 litres of raw liquor ingredients and 50 litres of raw alcohol from the spot along with equipment used, police officials said.

The raid was carried out after conducting a reconnaissance in the Aravallis with the help of drones, about two kilometres from Rithoj village in Sohna, they added.

Investigators identified the arrested men as Sacche Singh, Ganga Ram, Manoj Kumar, Anil Singh and Khemchand, residents of Rithoj village and Munshi Ram of Sahajawas village besides one minor.

Mahender Pathak, station house officer of the Bhondsi police station said that they had received a tip-off two days ago regarding illegal manufacture of liquor. “On Monday, we conducted a reconnaissance of the entire area using a drone and identified the spot. On Tuesday, we formed teams and conducted a raid when the suspects were making liquor and were about to fill it in bottles,” he said.

Vipin Ahlawat, assistant commissioner of police, Gurugram, said that when the raid was carried out, all the suspects were busy making illegal liquor at the distillery. Besides raw material and raw liquor, eight empty drums, three plastic canes, one axe, three iron angles were recovered from the spot. “To evade the police, the furnace was installed by the suspects in a deserted area in the Aravallis and the roads to reach the furnace were also narrow. It took almost a month to set up operations,” he said.

The ACP said they are questioning the suspects to get more information about how long the illegal distillery has been functional and where was the liquor sold. “We want to check if they were rebottling any prominent brand of liquor or using liquor bottles of any other brand to fill the country-made liquor,” he said.

In December 2023, the Rewari Police seized more than 300 cartons of spurious Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) from two licenced liquor shops in Gurugram and one in Manesar and sealed all three shops. Officials said the three shops were involved in packaging and selling IMFL in bottles of expensive liquor brands and transporting them to different states across the country.

A farmhouse was used to refill the empty liquor bottles and sold to liquor vends, based on which we began an investigation. The suspects told the police that they were supplying the fake liquor in Gurugram, Manesar, and Sohna, they said.