The police have busted a liquor adulteration racket in Maharashtra`s Palghar district by arresting one person and seizing stock worth Rs 12 lakh, an official said on Saturday, reported news agency PTI.
Acting on a tip-off, a team from the MBVV police`s crime branch raided a chawl in Nalasopara on Thursday and arrested the accused, Dharmaraj Babulal Nishad (55), the official said, reported PTI.
The accused allegedly procured cheap liquor from Diu-Daman and Goa, adulterated it with chemicals, and sold it in bottles of reputed high-end liquor brands, senior inspector Aviraj Kurhade said, reported PTI.
"Our team has seized 368 bottles of 750 ml and 180 ml liquor of various high-end brands and other paraphernalia worth Rs 12 lakh," he said, reported PTI.
A case has been registered under relevant provisions of the Maharashtra Prohibition Act, 1949, along with sections 318 (cheating) and 274 (adulteration of food or drink intended for sale) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the official said.
Nagar panchayat chief held for bid to siphon off Rs 111 cr through forged documents
In another case, the police have arrested the president of a local governing body at Vikramgad in Maharashtra`s Palghar district after alert officials of a leading public sector bank foiled his attempt to siphon off Rs 111 crore through submission of forged documents, officials said on Saturday, reported PTI.
The accused, Nilesh alias Pinka Ramesh Padwale, who is the president of Vikramgad Nagar Panchayat, also owns O V Construction Company. He was arrested on Friday from neighbouring Thane, they said, reported PTI.
The alleged embezzlement plot came to light on November 7, when a fake request letter from the Public Works Department (PWD) for issuance of a demand draft for Rs 111.63 crore in the name of the construction company was presented at the Jawhar branch of the State Bank of India (SBI), an official said, reported PTI.
The demand letter and accompanying cheque carried the purported signatures of a PWD executive engineer and accountant. But during the scrutiny of the letter, the bank officials grew suspicious as they found several inconsistencies, including the use of word `billion` instead of `crore`, the strikingly different style of letter writing, the official said.
The bank staff first tried to verify the request via email but received no response. A vigilant employee then personally visited the Jawhar PWD office, where officials provided mixed and contradictory answers, he said, reported PTI.
The conspiracy was fully exposed when the SBI managers met the executive engineer in person as he said the signature on the letter was not his. The subsequent investigation by the police culminated in the arrest of Padwale, while a case was also filed against one Yajnesh Ambire, reported PTI.
The police have registered the case against the duo under charges of cheating and forgery.
(With inputs from PTI)
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