CHENNAI: Sleuths of the Prohibition Enforcement Wing seized a huge cache of spurious liquor and arrested five persons in this connection near Maduravoyal on Monday. The latest development comes after the interrogation of a TASMAC bar owner Parameswaran, who was arrested in Poonamallee following a tip off on May 1. As many as 41 cartons consisting of 1,968 fake 180 ml McDowell brandy bottles were seized from his shop. Grilled, he spilled the name of his associate A Pachaiyappan (39), a resident of Kumananchavadi, who allegedly smuggled liquor bottles from Puducherry and sold them here.PEW sleuths mounted their vigil to trap Pachaiyappan and the breakthrough came on Monday night, when a special team intercepted a Ford Ikon car bearing a Puducherry registration plate at Vanagaram on Maduravoyal By-pass Road. Enquiry showed that the car driver was Pachaiyappan and the other occupant R Muralidharan (37) of Seneerkuppam. Fifteen boxes containing 960 liquor bottles bought from Puducherry were seized from the duo.Probe showed that Pachiyappan bought duplicate 180 ml GGB brandy bottles for Rs 40 and soaked them in a bucket of water to remove the hologram labels. He then pasted original holograms and McDowel brandy bottle labels of Tamil Nadu and sold them to the bars here. In 2008, he was arrested by the Villupuram PEW unit for selling illicit liquor. Muralidharan was his business partner. The PEW team also zeroed in on T Puroshottaman (24) of Seneerkuppam after it was revealed that he worked as a machine operator in Valasaravakkam Breweries and Distilleries and had smuggled holograms out of his company and sold them to Pachaiyappan.The team also arrested S Kasi Mariappan (30) of Karaiyanchavadi, another business partner of Pachiayappan, and M Rupan (24) of Parivakkam in Poonamanalle, who worked as machine operator at Poonamalle Breweries and Distilleries and smuggled out McDowell brandy labels and sold them to the kingpin. Police said contraband comprising 41 boxes of 1,968 fake 180 ml brandy bottles, 16 boxes containing 768 McDowell bottles, a Lanova laptop, a printer, 7,000 TN Excise Holograms, 8,000 McDowell labels, Ford car, Tata Magic auto and autorickshaw were seized in the entire operation that started on May 1.
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