Ahmedabad, Sep 1 (IANS) The police in Ahmedabad raided an illegal liquor unit operating out of a rented house near Fatehwadi Canal on the city’s outskirts, an official said on Monday, adding that the raid led to the seizure of over 300 litres of raw material, including flavouring essence, an alcohol meter, and nearly 2,000 empty bottles allegedly meant for bottling spurious liquor.

According to officials, the haul is valued at around Rs 50,000.

Police sources confirmed that the unit was being used to manufacture fake “English liquor”.

When the raid team arrived, the house was locked. However, with the landlord’s help, they entered and recovered the stock. The tenant, who had allegedly been running the operation, is absconding.

Sarkhej Police Inspector S.A. Gohil said that preliminary investigations suggest the accused was producing counterfeit liquor using chemicals, and efforts are underway to establish whether the supply chain extended beyond Ahmedabad. “The accused has been identified and will be arrested soon,” he added.

The raid forms part of Gujarat Police’s ongoing crackdown on bootlegging under the state prohibition law.

In 2025, Gujarat Police have stepped up their crackdown on illicit liquor under the state’s prohibition law, seizing massive hauls across districts — including IMFL worth Rs 1.26 crore hidden in a tanker at the Gujarat–Madhya Pradesh border in Dahod, 15,456 bottles of counterfeit liquor worth Rs 54 lakh in Ahmedabad, 8,596 bottles valued at Rs 1.19 crore in Surendranagar’s Chotila, and another Rs 65.18 lakh consignment in Vadodara, alongside seizures such as liquor worth Rs 30.57 lakh from a gas tanker near Dahod.

According to official data, Gujarat’s State Monitoring Cell confiscated alcohol worth Rs 22.52 crore in 2024, while in the past two years alone, liquor valued at Rs 191 crore has been seized, underlining both the scale of smuggling operations and the state’s intensified enforcement.

–IANS

janvi/pgh