Panipat police have uncovered an inter-state liquor smuggling racket after intercepting a truck carrying close to 1000 boxes of alcoholic beverages. The consignment, concealed under bags of limestone powder, was en route to the dry state of Bihar from Himachal Pradesh.
Acting on a tip-off, the police stopped the truck on Chautala road in Panipat and found the registration number to be fake upon inspection. The driver and helper, hailing from Bihar, could not produce valid documents for the transport of the concealed cargo.
A probe revealed that fake e-way bills listing limestone powder were being used to ferry the liquor from a distillery in Paonta Sahib, Himachal Pradesh to buyers in Siliguri, West Bengal. However, no such exporter or recipient could be verified at the declared locations.
In a parallel development, an FIR was filed in Sirmaur over the disappearance of another vehicle carrying liquor boxes of the same brand from the same distillery. The contradictory complaints raise suspicion of a organized racket using decoy paperwork to sneak prohibited items into target markets.
The seized stock is believed to have originated from a firm operating out of Paonta Sahib, as per police findings. Further investigations are ongoing to nab the kingpins and dismantle the entire illegal supply chain. This exposure underscores the need for stringent monitoring to check unabated flow of intoxicants into states with prohibition in place.
