A piece of baseless news with no concrete evidence is being circulated by a Guwahati based web-portal, claiming that one Himalayan Distillery is involved in selling illicit liquor.
The Web Portal reported that a truck was seized on Wednesday in Sonapur which belonged to Himalayan Distillery, owned by a close-aide of Himanta Biswa Sarma. However, in our investigation, it has come to light that the truck has no relation to Himalayan Distillery and was run by a gang of four liquor mafias led by one Diganta Neog, who is now on the run.
The news was based on one press release by the Department of Excise, Government of Assam which has two instances.
One claims that Sonapur Police on Wednesday night seized a truck bearing registration- As-01-GC-4197 laden with a huge consignment of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) near the Tetelia area of Sonapur, Kamrup Metro District. While the other claims that the Department of Excise has raided an illegal factory in the outskirts of Guwahati city on Thursday afternoon.
While the two instances have a different story, the web portal merged both and created a story of their own, throwing a black stain on Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his close associate.
The Thursday raid on an illegally-run “so-called” distillery, operated by the gang led by Diganta Neog was carried out based on our intel. The department seized 918 cases of IMFL and around 4000 litres of Extra Neutral Alcohol (ENA).
But, the web portal went on to report that Thursday raid was conducted in the factory operated by Himalayan Distillery.
We have concrete evidence that the truck and the factory have no links with Himalayan Distillery. However, the so-called “number one” web portal, without even doing a cross-check carried out the story, just based on the press release.
Speaking to Headline 8, the close-aide of Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “It is unfortunate to see that a media house of such repute can go so low and report such sensitive issues without any fact-check. Since they have tarnished my image, I’ll knock on the door of the court.”