Smuggled liquor worth ₹25 lakh seized, 4 arrested

LUCKNOW : The UP Special Task Force (STF) on Sunday claimed to have busted a Haryana-based inter-state liquor smuggling racket and arrested four of its active members on LucknowHardoi border. The STF also seized around 665 cartons of English liquor worth ₹25 lakh .

Senior superintendent of police (SSP), STF, Abhishek Singh said the seized liquor was to be delivered to a Lucknowbased smuggler Sonu in Rahimabad locality of Malihabad . He said the liquor was smuggled from Panipat, Haryana and was being transported to Lucknow in a mini truck. Two close aides of the mastermind Dharam Raj of Panipat, Haryana were piloting the truck to its destination in a separate car, he added.

He said those arrested were identified as Mohsin, Aash Mohammed and Hashim, all residents of Shamli and Nawab of Muzaffarnagar. He said Mohsin and Aash Mohammed were in the mini truck while the other two were in the car. The SSP said the STF team was tracking their movement and intercepted them when the truck and the car halted at a roadside dhaba on LucknowHardoi highway, barely 25 km before reaching the destination, at around 1.30 am on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. He said those arrested revealed that they were members of the gang of Dharam Raj, a notorious liquor smuggler of the northern region.