JOIN USLockdown: Bengaluru man held for selling duty-free liquor bought from foreign airports
The Central Crime Branch (CCB) arrested a 31-year-old finance and garments consultant for allegedly trying to sell duty-free liquor at an exorbitant price. Police seized around 22 litres of foreign- and Indian-made scotch packed in 24 bottles, a car and an iPhone from Vasanthnagar resident Roshan Bhateja.
Following a tip-off, CCB sleuths posing as customers contacted Bhateja and transferred money online for the liquor. When he came to deliver the bottles at Palace Road near Mount Carmel College in central Bengaluru, a CCB team headed by inspector Ravi Patil arrested Bhateja.
Kuldeep Kumar Jain, the deputy commissioner of police (crime), said: “We contacted Bhateja as customers. We arrested him Roshan Bhateja when he turned up to deliver the liquor. Bhateja was charging the customers three times the MRP.” A preliminary probe revealed Bhateja had visited many countries for work and would buy duty-free liquor from the airports. With a high demand for liquor during the lockdown, he planned to sell his stock and make a quick buck, Jain said.
The jurisdictional High Grounds police have booked Bhateja under the Excise Act and IPC section 188 (disobedience to an order duly promulgated by a public servant), an investigating officer said.