Police Inspector Raju Surve of the Local Crime Branch with his team of sleuths and the wanted accused.

In a major breakthrough, the Local Crime Branch (LCB) of the Nashik Rural Police headed by IPS Vikram Deshmane a day before yesterday arrested Sanjay Marwari alias Purnsingh Madhusingh Marwari (33), the mastermind of the liquor smuggling ring, who has beeen absconding since July 7 when a jawan of the State Excise Department lost his life and two ammaldars attached with the Lasalgaon Police Station were seriously injured in a road accident while they were chasing vehicles involved in liquor smuggling. 

With Marwari’s arrest, the LCB has broken the liquor smuggling ring which has been under investigation for quite some time. On July 7, Marwari  was driving the Creta car which was part of the cavalcade of vehicles involved in the liquor smuggling, the police said. Marwari’s is the sixth arrest in the case. Earlier, the LCB led by Police Inspector Raju Surve arrested five accused Deveesh Patel, Ashpak Ali Shaikh, Rahul Sahani, Shoheb Ansari and Bhaveshkumar Prajapati. Marwari whose current resident was Daman is a native of Navsara in Rajasthan, the police said.

Acting on a tip-off, the LCB had kept the location where Marwari was supposed to come under surveillance. The Nashik Rural Police under the instructions of top cop IPS Vikram Deshmane has launched a massive crackdown on the liquor smuggling which has seen a rapid rise in the areas bordering the district. Most of the liquor smuggling takes place in areas bordering Gujarat especially the centrally administered territories of Dadar & Nagar Havel and Daman and Diu. After the fategul incident of July 7, a case with CR No 273/2024 was filed at the Chandwad Police Station under Sections 103(1), 109, 132, 238, 324(4), 121(1), (2), 3(5), 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and under Sections 183, 184, 134(A), (B)/177, 79(1), 61(2) of the Motor Vehicles Act.

The operation was conducted under the guidance of Additional SP, Nashik Rural, IPS Aditya Mirkhelkar. PI Raju Surve of LCB led a team of sleuths namely havaldars Sachin Desale, Kishor Karate, Dhananjay Shilawate,  Prakash Kasar, Meghraj Jadhav, Nitin Davkhar, Manoj Sanap and Pradip Bahiram, Hemant Gilbile of the Technical Analysis team helped the investigating team.

By Ashfaque Ismail

A law student