A godown used to stock Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and located hardly two kilometres away from Ahmedabad was busted by the vigilance squad of the Director General of Police, Gujarat state, late in the afternoon on Monday. The police have seized 181 cartons of IMFL, worth Rs6.24 lakh, waiting to be distributed in the city.
The police raided Roopali farmhouse, a posh farmhouse near Greenwoods Resorts in Gota, located under the jurisdiction of the Sarkhej police. The raid was based on a tip off received by RS Sindhi, a police inspector deployed in the DG vigilance squad. Deepak Vyas, deputy superintendent of police for DG vigilance, told DNA that the farmhouse was being used as a godown by the bootleggers, and the IMFL was transferred to the city in smaller consignments from here.
The police have declared three absconders in the case. Manish Patel, a resident of Shahibaug, Yasin, a resident of Dudheswar in Shahpur, and Vasant Khatri, relative of infamous bootlegger Manoj Khatri and a resident of Ghatlodia, had escaped from the godown when the police conducted the raid. All the three are history sheeters and have been arrested in the past, in Dabhoi, Shahibaug and other city police stations.
However, after the raid, further investigations have been handed over to the Sarkhej police station who will track the accused. Vyas said that there might have been a watch at the main entrance to the road. They might have seen the police and escaped from the spot.
