Face2News/Gurugram/New Delhi
Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Gurugram Zonal Office, had conducted search and seizure operations on Tuesday and Wednesday at ten premises in Delhi-NCR, Haryana and Punjab in connection with an ongoing money-laundering investigation under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, pertaining to procurement and storage of large quantities of foreign liquor without holograms and Track & Trace Strips by a liquor syndicate and its illegal sale through licensed liquor vend operating under the name “THE THEKA”, owned by Ankush Goyal and other partners, in Gurugram.
The searches covered office premises and residential premises of the persons associated with “The Theka”, foreign liquor suppliers, unauthorized persons involved in supply of foreign liquor without holograms and Trace & Trace Strips and the transporters, forming part of the liquor syndicate.
ED investigation was initia ted on the basis of FIR registered / Chargesheet filed by Haryana Police relating to allegations of illegal sale of foreign liquor and misuse of bond-to-bond transfer of imported foreign liquor (IFL) by evading applicable custom duties and state excise taxes. This FIR was registered based on the complaint by Excise officials, who recovered and seized 3921 cases and 176 bottles loose imported foreign liquor which were without hologram and Trace & Trace strips, from “The Theka” on 09.12.2025.
Another FIR was found registered by Haryana Police against some member of the liquor syndicate for being involved in sale of spurious liquor. Investigation has revealed that the foreign liquor found without holograms and Track & Trace Strips is imported into India by Government-recognised companies. The liquor syndicate misused the Bond-to Bond Transfer system, under which liquor can be transferred from one State to another without payment of Customs Duty and Excise Duty at the time of transfer.
For this purpose, they set up separate companies in Haryana and Goa / Maharashtra and obtained the required Customs licences and documents. After making payments to the foreign liquor supplier companies through banking channels, the liquor was transferred to bonded warehouses in Haryana.
However, instead of transporting the liquor to the designated warehouses in
Goa/ Maharashtra, the liquor syndicate in connivance with the transporters, diverted the foreign liquor directly to liquor vends situated in Gurugram, where it was ultimately sold to customers under the guise of legitimate imported foreign stock, thereby evading applicable custom duties, cesses and other taxes, resulting in generation of proceeds of crime.The searches revealed that after obtaining the liquor license for the period 2025–2027, a plan was devised by the liquor syndicate, to increase profits by procuring and selling imported foreign liquor without holograms and Track & Trace Strips.
The liquor syndicate is found to have procured more than 01 Lakh bottles of imported foreign liquor between June-2025 to November-2025. This foreign liquor was then illegally sold through the liquor vend- The Theka without payment of the applicable custom duty, VAT and other applicable taxes along with permit fees which was required to be paid per bulk litre of imported foreign
liquor procured.The liquor vend then illegally sold this imported foreign liquor passing it off as legitimate stock and in this way it made profit of 20-25% on these illegal sales and generateed proceeds of crime worth more than Rs. 10 crore.
During the search operations, various incriminating documents, documents/ information related to procurement of the imported foreign liquor and digital records pertaining to imported foreign liquor procured and supplied under custom bond to bond were recovered and seized for further examination.
Further, cash of Rs. 11 Lakh was also seized during the course of the investigation. The investigation is going on.
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