Hamirpur (HP), April 11 The Excise and Taxation Department, with the assistance of local police, dismantled an illegal liquor racket operating in the Pratapnagar area, recovering 170 boxes of alcohol, officials said on Saturday.
The operation, which took place on Friday, targeted the illicit trade carried out under the guise of a grocery store. Following this seizure, authorities are expected to conduct raids on other suspected hideouts, they said.
However, the prime accused, Sunny Sehgal, managed to evade arrest and flee the scene, the officials added.
Acting on a tip-off, a team from the Excise Department launched the operation. During initial searches, the team recovered five cases of liquor from a grocery store and seven from another.
The breakthrough came when the team searched rooms rented by the accused, where they found over 158 boxes of both country-made liquor and foreign liquor.
Hamirpur Superintendent of Police Balbir Singh Thakur said that the investigators traced the illegal trade back to a grocery store rented by Suresh Kumar, a resident of Una district.
The illegal operation had been flourishing for some time, with locals aware of the activity, but the lack of enforcement action had emboldened the perpetrators.
The police have registered a case under the relevant sections and initiated an investigation. Special teams have been constituted to apprehend the absconding accused, who remains at large, the SP said.