The Gujarat Police’s State Monitoring Cell (SMC) seized a large quantity of liquor in a raid conducted at a cattle shed on a farmland near Balamukund Society in Kapodra, Surat on Saturday.

The officials seized 17,421 bottles of liquor worth ₹33.11 lakh from two rooms in the cattle shed and arrested a bootlegger from Kamrej along with the tenant who had taken the rooms on rent. Further investigation led to the seizure of an additional 2,015 bottles of liquor worth ₹4.28 lakh, which were being transported in a tempo.  

As per  SMC sources, based on a tip-off, a team led by Police Sub-Inspector V A Sheikh conducted a raid at the residence of 34-year-old Harshad alias Bharat Babu Ambaliya (Patel) in Pasodara Home Township, and at the residence of 35-year-old Nitin Gulabbhai Idariya (Koli) in Kadodara Variyava Street. Both were detained for questioning.  

Following Ambaliya’s statement, the team proceeded to inspect a cattle shed built on farmland owned by Ramesh Patel, which was rented by Harshad near Balamukund Society and Maruti Nandan Society in Kapodra. 

During the search, 17,421 bottles of liquor worth ₹33,10,638 were discovered in two rooms inside the cattle shed. Apart from liquor, the officials also seized two mobile phones and ₹1,000 in cash, bringing the total seized goods to ₹33,26,638. Both Ambaliya and Nitin were arrested.  

During questioning, Ambaliya revealed that his brother Lalit had rented a room in Punagam Parekh Park Society for their catering business and had been storing liquor there. The SMC team took Harshad along to Parekh Park Society for further investigation. However, upon learning about the raid, Lalit attempted to escape by loading liquor into a tempo. Upon seeing the police, he abandoned the tempo and fled on a moped with someone else.  

The officials checked the tempo by removing the tarp from its rear section and found 2,015 liquor bottles worth ₹4,28,141 inside. Moreover, two mobile phones and the tempo itself were confiscated, bringing the total seized assets from the tempo to ₹5,84,141.  

In total, the SMC confiscated 19,436 bottles of liquor worth ₹37,38,769 from both locations and filed two separate cases at Kapodra and Punagam police stations. 

Harshad’s brother Lalit, Kailash Bihari from Daman (who supplied the liquor), Manish Vyas from Kadodara (who ordered the liquor), and the tempo owner were declared wanted.  

Background

During questioning, Ambaliya disclosed that four months ago, he had leased 1.5 bighas of farmland by Ashokbhai Patel for ₹31,000 along with his business partner Ashokbhai. On this land, they built a cattle shed and rooms to house 20 buffaloes and 20 cows. Moreover, Ambaliya and his brother Lalit had rented a room in Parekh Park Society for their catering business.  

However, facing financial difficulties over the past two months, Harshad and Nitin decided to rent out the two rooms in the cattle shed for ₹30,000 and the Parekh Park Society room for ₹15,000 to store liquor for supply across Surat city and district during the Holi-Dhuleti festival. Kailash Bihari from Daman supplied the liquor to Nitin, who then distributed it to Manish Vyas.  

Nitin has previous cases related to liquor smuggling at Sarthana and Kamrej police stations, while Ambaliya had a case registered against him at Sarthana police station in 2018 for allegedly forging documents and forcibly acquiring property.