Siliguri: Two held with counterfeit liquor

Siliguri: Excise department and Pradhan Nagar Police jointly raided a building at Narmada Bagan area under Ward 46 and recovered a huge quantity of counterfeit liquor, empty bottles, labels of branded liquor, and many more items on Thursday.

Two men, including the owner of the house, were arrested from the spot. The accused have been identified as Krishna Prasad and Varun Kumar. Krishna is the owner of the house while Varun is a resident of Bihar and has been working in the building.

Sujit Das, Additional Excise Commissioner, Jalpaiguri Excise Division, said: “We received information about a racket of making counterfeit liquor that was going on in Champasari area. We were keeping vigil on this for the past two months. More people are involved in the case. We are searching for the kingpin.”

As much as 125 litre counterfeit foreign liquor, 37 litre non-duty paid foreign liquor brought from Sikkim, 697 empty glass bottles, 96 empty plastic bottles, 24 piece labels of branded foreign liquor were recovered. One four-wheeler and a two-wheeler were recovered.

The estimated market value of the seized products was over Rs 12 lakh. There is a connection with Sikkim, Bihar and Kolkata.