Ludhiana: After the hooch tragedy that claimed at least 86 lives in Punjab, the Ludhiana police on Sunday said that they busted an illicit liquor manufacturing racket and recovered huge amounts of illicit liquor between May 18 and August 1.
Police said that more than two lakh litres of mahua lahan (used for making liquor), 1,612 litres of illicit liquor and 4,606 litres of English wine were recovered.
A press note released by the Police Commissioner's Office of Ludhiana said that the police had launched a special drive two months ago to take strict action against illicit liquor, its distillation, and subsequent smuggling across state districts and their ultimate sale.
This special drive was conducted by an Anti-Smuggling Cell that was dedicatedly constituted two months ago to take charge of this mission. The cell consists of 30 police personnel, working full time to look into this issue of illegal alcohol distillation and smuggling across the state.
The document also revealed that more than 270 FIRs were registered during this period of mid-May to early-August with the arrest of 301 smugglers.