ED files Prosecution Complaint against Liqour Mafia of Daman Ramesh Patel

Daman/Surat:

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed Prosecution Complaint against Ramesh Jagubhai Patel alias Michael, the liquor mafia of Daman and his accomplices under PMLA.

An ED official today confirmed it.

Notably, and ED had earlier conducted raids on his premises and registered case against him.

The investigation by the probe agency last year showed the involvement of Patel and his wife Bhanuben, residents of Daman who own and operate wine shops, and they have surfaced as the main supplier of IMFL from where the said liquor was smuggled in bulk quantity to Gujarat through local bootleggers despite the fact that the IMFL supplied by distilleries to wine shops owners in Daman is for sale in Daman only. Patel was operating an illegal warehouse of about 3000 sq metres in Daman for “his illegal liquor business without any license or permission from Excise authorities.
It was found that the said premise was purposely concealed by a ‘chawl’ like locality wherein 80 families are living in small rooms protecting this illegal warehouse. An alleged shortage of stock of 38,000 liquor cases worth over Rs 7 crore had been detected which was suspected to have been illegally diverted out of Daman.

The ED officers had also seized an illegal stock of 8,850 boxes containing 1,91,478 bottles worth Rs 2.54 crore.

DeshGujarat