VIJAYAWADA : NTR district police, who are investigating the illegal liquor business racket that was busted on Wednesday, are suspecting the role of a retired army personnel behind the illegal business activities in Vijayawada city, Guntur and Tenali towns.
Based on a reliable information from sources that a few persons, formed as a gang and selling the foreign brand liquor bottles without any necessary permissions from the government departments concerned, a team led by Machavaram police inspector P Guna Ramu laid a trap and caught Koganti Vijay Sai (25) on Tuesday. The police further recovered as many as 352 foreign brand liquor bottles from a rented house in Gazetted Officer colony near Guru Nanak Colony.
With the help of information obtained from gang member Sai, Machavaram police tried to trace the kingpin of the illegal liquor business, but in vain. “The prime accused swiftly absconded soon after he came to know that Sai got caught by Machavaram police. The accused was identified as retired army personnel Sri Hari and operating the racket from Tenali with Vijayawada city as main centre,” said a senior official on the condition of anonymity.
“We are verifying the details of the prime accused Sri Hari and his past criminal history,” police officials added.
During the investigation, more shocking facts pertaining to the gang and its operations in the city tumbled out. It was found that the accused gained some contacts of persons dealing liquor business in Haryana using his previous army identity card and acquaintances with some officials working in railway and other departments. Further, the accused gained some contacts of persons dealing liquor business in Haryana and purchased liquor. “The accused along with his gang members, somehow brought the stock to Vijayawada and started selling at higher prices making a profit of at least 30 per cent on each bottle. He has been doing illegal business for the past three years,” said the officials.
Moreover, police officials during their district wide enforcement drives from January 1 to 5, came to know that more than 50 such gangs are operating in an organized manner in the district. “These gangs operate secretly and sell only to people having specific referrals or recommendations from inside the network members. They will get an alert and go in dark whenever an outsider with no proper reference tries to approach them seeking liquor bottles,” added the police official.