HYDERABAD: Those bottles of premium foreign liquor gifted to you may not be premium after all! The practice of filling local liquor in premium bottles and selling the same for high rates is rampant in the city.
Task Force Police, Telangana Prohibition and Excise’s Charminar team apprehended three people on Tuesday, who allegedly sold liquor made in India as foreign branded liquor. 22 such bottles were seized with brand labels of Glenfiddich, Johnnie Walker Blue Label, and Chivas Regal.
Additional DCP of the Task Force team S Chaitanya Kumar said that some customers of the accused bought such bottles knowing all too well what it contains and gifted them to family members, friends and acquaintances. The Police officials said that they suspected the accused might have procured empty foreign branded liquor bottles from hotels, pubs and clubs, filled them with liquor manufactured in India and sold it at 20 to 30 per-cent less than original price.
“The liquid inside some of the bottles was murky and we found cork inside one of the bottles which was sealed with another cork,” said the additional DCP Chaitanya Kumar. The three accused Vijay Kumar Bhatia, Harish Keswani, Mukesh Agrwal, were handed over to Telangana Prohibition and Excise’s Charminar station officials. The trio had financial problems and wanted to make easy money.
Nephrologists from city said consumption of adulerated liquor or excess of low quality liquor will lead to acute kidney failure. “In this condition, function of kidneys temporarily goes down. They can recover from this only if they undergo dialysis,” said Dr G Swarnalatha, nephrologist, NIMS.