Overview
- Excise teams stopped a truck and found 73,440 bottles of Goa-made Indian Made Foreign Liquor valued at about Rs 1.89 crore on Wednesday evening on the Panvel‑Mumbra highway.
- The truck driver was arrested and booked under the Maharashtra Prohibition Act and officials say a formal probe into the smuggling case is under way.
- A search found the bottles lacked batch numbers and MRP labels, which makes them illegal for sale in Maharashtra and is a common marker of diverted or potentially spurious stock.
- The seizure forms part of a stepped-up multi-district crackdown after a recent deadly hooch incident, with authorities reporting roughly 313 cases registered, about 213 arrests, demolition of hand‑distillation units and multiple vehicle seizures.
- Officials warn the probe could lead to further raids, property demolitions and administrative action against complicit suppliers and public servants, and they urge residents to report unlabelled liquor to assist public‑health safeguards.