Man held for illegally selling liquor in Mumbai

The state excise department officers on Monday arrested a 54-year-old man with illegal possession of imported liquor worth Rs3.16 lakh.

The accused used to buy imported liquor from non-resident Indians (NRIs) visiting the city with permissible liquor and sell them to retailers, thereby evading excise duty on imported liquor.

The arrested person has been identified as Vinod Thakurdas Tirthani, a resident of Dadar (W).

According to superintendent of excise, NN Mudiraj, the Bandra unit of the department got a tip-off that a man would be arriving near Nargis Dutta Road in Bandra (W) on Monday with a bag containing illegal imported liquor bottles.

A trap was laid and Tirthani was caught. “We have seized 14 bottles of imported liquor from him. Another 50 bottles of imported liquor were seized from his residence," said excise inspector Pravin Pol.

“Two duty-free liquor bottles are allowed to be carried on one passport. But if we buy these from a wine shop, it comes with import duty. The NRIs instead of consuming the liquor, used to sell it to Tirthani, who used to sell it to retailers, thereby evading import duty,” said an excise officer, requesting anonymity.