AP-Telangana spurious liquor racket busted: 6 held; Huzurnagar rice mill used for crime

Hyderabad: The Telangana Prohibition and Excise Department has busted a large inter-state spurious liquor racket operating from a rice mill in Huzurnagar, arresting six persons linked to the network in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Illegal liquor manufacturing unit raided

The State Task Force (STF) team raided Shruthi Rice Mill at Ramapuram village in Mellachervu mandal, Huzurnagar.

During the operation, officials seized 24 plastic cans containing 35 litres each of rectified spirit, totalling 840 litres and 38 cartons of McDowell’s whisky, each carton containing 48 bottles of 280 ml, amounting to 328 litres.

Massive seizure of bottles, labels and manufacturing material

The team also recovered 11,800 empty McDowell’s whisky bottles, 7,814 brand labels, half a dozen steel vessels of 200 litres capacity, 12 caramel bottles, aluminium caps of old Admiral brandy weighing 56.3 kg, McDowell’s whisky caps weighing 42.8 kg, and a car used in the operations.

Key accused arrested in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh

Two men arrested at the site were identified as S Mahesh Kumar of Durgi village in Palnadu district, Andhra Pradesh and Prakash of Ramapuram village, Suryapet district, Telangana.

District Prohibition and Excise Officer R Lakshma Naik stated that in June, Andhra Pradesh excise teams had booked cases of spurious liquor manufacture in Amalapuram, Repalle, Markapuram and other areas, seizing large quantities of adulterated liquor and manufacturing ingredients.

The suppliers identified were Mallikarjunarao of Krishna Pharma, Charanjeet Singh Seti (both from Uppal), and R Srinivas of Vanastalipuram, who were apprehended by special teams.

Kodad link revealed; local organiser among those held

Further investigation revealed that the racket was being operated from Kodad in Suryapet district. Thota Shiva Shankar, license holder of Shiva Parvathi Wines in Mellachervu, was identified as the local organiser.

Following surveillance and raids, the STF team arrested Shankar along with suppliers Mallikarjunarao, Charanjeet Singh and R Srinivas.