UP: Gang smuggling liquor in ambulance, milk van busted; 6 held

A gang that smuggled liquor in ambulances and milk vans was busted and six people arrested in Greater Noida, police said on Monday.

The gang was held on Sunday night in Badalpur area and more than 350 cartons of liquor were seized from their possession, a senior officer said.

Varieties of liquor seized from them were meant for sale in Arunachal Pradesh and Haryana but were illegally being sold in Uttar Pradesh, Superintendent of Police, Greater Noida, Ranvijay Singh said.

"The liquor they sold in UP was also adulterated. The gang would take out some liquor from each bottle and refill it with water. They would then add urea or fertilizer in it in order to give it an intense taste," Singh told reporters.

He said 15 kg of urea has also been recovered from the gang.

Packaging material in huge quantity including bottle caps and wrappers were recovered that were used by the gang for re-packaging the bottles with adulterated content, the official said.

Those held have been identified as Ravindra, Amarjeet, Aakash Kumar, Pravesh Pal, Shivam Singh and Anuj Chaudhary.

Six vehicles including a mini bus, a sedan, two hatchbacks, a pick up and a motorcycle were impounded in the action.

"The accused believed that ambulance and milk vans are among vehicles which are not generally stopped by the police for checking. But in recent times we had been getting inputs about such illegal transportation, leading to their arrests," Singh said.

An FIR has been registered against the accused and they were produced in a local court which remanded them in judicial custody, the police added.