Bar owner pays Rs 16 lakh for fake licence

The owner of a liquor outlet in Dobbspet has filed a police complaint against a man, his son and another person, accusing them of cheating him with a fake MSIL excise licence. The outlet was recently raided by the Excise Department.

Mohan Kumar M C, 45, stated that he paid Rs 16 lakh to Hanumantharayappa, his son Harish H S and another man named Uday Kumar for the licence. He said that he got introduced to the trio at a friend’s wedding three years ago and that they had boasted about having contacts in the Excise Department.

They promised to get him the licence to open a liquor outlet in three months and quoted Rs 20 lakh as their fee. They later settled at Rs 16 lakh, which Kumar paid in two months. The men, however, failed to keep their word about getting the licence in three months.

When Kumar kept asking them, they gave him a licence bearing the seal and signature of the Excise Department on October 9, 2016, and also promised to supply liquor. Kumar opened the outlet the same year and the suspects supplied him liquor for two months.

Excise officials raided Kumar’s outlet recently and found the licence to be fake and the seal forged. When Kumar tried to contact the trio, their phones were switched off. He then went to the police.