The Railway Protection Force (RPF) sleuths on Tuesday busted a Chembur-based gang involved in smuggling spurious liquor.
The five-member gang allegedly sold vodka, brandy and whisky after buying it from Goa. The RPF said the gang used Mumbai and North-bound trains to transport the liquor and sell it to customers in Mumbai at exorbitant rates.
The accused are residents of Mukund Nagar in Chembur.Mohamed Shafiq Sheikh, 35, Suraj Paul, 18, Sonya Ghadge, 22, Pradeep Jadhav, 32, and Madhukar Gopal, 22, were booked under Section 165 (unlawfully bringing offensive goods) of the Indian Railways Act.
The five were remanded in judicial custody till September 28, said inspector Prashant Sansare from Panvel’s RPF office. The gang sold each pouch for Rs60 to Rs70 after procuring it for only Rs15, he added. The police have launched a man-hunt to nab gang leader Akbar Sayyed and his associate Aslam Sheikh.
Describing the modus operandi, Sansare said, “Sayyed visited Goa thrice a month to buy the liquor. He kept liquor pouches concealed in cardboard boxes under the lower berths of the train or in the cavity of toilets after unscrewing the ply sheets with help of coolies.”
Before the train left, Sayyed gave details of the train and the stash to his associate Aslam. Aslam then boarded the same compartment from Ratnagiri station to monitor the consignment.
Later, Aslam then intimated other gang members about the coach details and the time of arrival of the train at Panvel so that they could unload the consignment. On reaching Panvel, the gang members moved the stash via a Panvel-CST local to Mankhurd or Chembur, said Sansare.
The police said the gang used the Madgaon-Delhi Sampark Kranti Express, Kochuvelu-Amritsar Express and Trivandrum-Delhi Mangala Express for their illegal activities.
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