Mysuru: In a major breakthrough, the excise officials managed to bust an inter-state gang employed in the supply of labels, caps and other vital items required in duplicate liquor bottling recently.

The excise sleuths first laid their hands on the Kingpin Srikanth, a resident of RMV 2nd stage and confiscated cache of the items from his residence in Bengaluru.

The gang used to procure caps, labels and sealing materials used in liquor bottling by reputed companies and then supply the same to prospective buyers in various states including Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Puducherry, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Goa. They used to get the items from the manufacturer in Ullas Nagar in Mumbai and then supply the same to various buyers through VRL logistics.

The excise officials have managed to seize 115042 duplicate caps, 112630 duplicate labels and 88315 seal stickers from the gang. They confiscated duplicate items traded using the names of reputed companies involved in the liquor business. The gang members arrested include Venkatesh, Manu, V.Krishna, Suresh, Satish and Pratap. Based on the information given by the kingpin, the excise police in association with their Maharashtra counterparts have launched a hunt to nab people in Mumbai involved in manufacturing and have taken the kingpin to Mumbai to trace them.

Further investigations are on.