Bags, Bikes And Booze: When Delhi's Delivery Boys Became Bootleggers

Time of India

11-07-2025

New Delhi: At first glance, Dashrath Kumar seemed like an ordinary delivery boy going about his daily routine. Wearing a red t-shirt given by one company and carrying an orange bag from another firm, he blended in with the crowd.
However, unbeknownst to passersby, Kumar was being closely tracked by police, who had been monitoring a bootlegging operation. He was apprehended and a large quantity of illicit liquor seized.
Sourabh's story bears a striking resemblance. A delivery boy for an e-commerce firm, he succumbed to his vices and began delivering liquor on the side, seeking an extra source of income. This decision eventually led him to run afoul of the law, landing him in police custody.
In both these cases, the facade of a harmless delivery boy hid a more sinister reality, highlighting how this illicit trade of bootlegging is exploiting gig economy workers.
On Thursday, 25-year-old Khurshid, who looked like any other delivery boy, was nabbed in southeast Delhi's Govindpuri while trying to flee with an unusually bulky e-cart bag, stuffed with 400 quarters of liquor marked "For sale in Haryana only."
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These are not standalone cases and represent a new breed of challenges for law enforcement agencies tasked with curbing bootlegging in the city. In the first quarter of 2025 alone, Delhi recorded 2,496 cases under the Excise Act, a sharp 80.6% jump from 1,382 cases in the same period last year. That's a reversal from 2023 to 2024, which had seen a slight 3.2% drop. Compared to Q1 of 2023, this year has seen a 75% surge.
What's being trafficked is mostly cheap, local liquor, bottles of "Desi Santra" and similar brands.
A 180ml bottle sells for around Rs 50, making it easy to transport in bulk and highly profitable. Similarly bottles of whiskey, rum and vodka also give a substantial margin, making the trade lucrative.
The carriers, cops said, are paid handsomely enabling constant supply of workforce in this trade. For a car full of good quality liquor to the brim that includes the boot and the rear passenger cabinet, the driver can be paid as high as Rs 30,000 per trip.
Most of this liquor continues to come in from Haryana, particularly through border points like Bajghera, Surakhpur, Jharoda, and Dhansa, most of which feeds into Dwarka. Over the past three years, the number of illicit liquor quarters seized by the Dwarka district police through these borders alone has grown sharply from nearly 2 lakh in 2022 to 3.5 lakh in 2023, marking a 72.5% increase, and further rising by 16% in 2024 to reach approximately 4 lakh.
In the first five months of 2025 alone, 1.8 lakh quarters have been seized.
Shidipur-Lowa, a village just across the Haryana border near Bahadurgarh, has emerged as a major source point. Here, licensed manufacturers exploit a legal loophole, holding valid production permits but selling the stock through illegal channels, cops said. "The traffickers keep adopting new strategies to stay ahead of us. From using tempos, trucks, sedans and even ambulances, they are known to experiment with different kinds of carriers to keep their business afloat," says a senior officer.
However, the cops are upgrading their game as well. Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras were installed at key checkpoints in Dwarka sometime ago. These systems scan vehicle plates and flag suspicious travel patterns. A car entering from Gurgaon at 9.50pm and exiting again at 11.30pm, for example, might be prioritised for inspection. "Quick turnaround is often a red flag," said DCP (Dwarka) Ankit Singh.
"Now, ANPR data alerts ground teams in real time. That's helped us recover bottles and catch modified vehicles."
Officers recently spotted unusual bike movement in ANPR footage, repeated trips from Gurgaon into Delhi within hours.
Plainclothes teams now monitor hotspots like Bahadurgarh, Shidipur-Lowa and parts of Gurgaon. "We watch the loading zones. Box after box of liquor going into a vehicle is all the evidence we need.
Once we know, we follow and intercept," the DCP said.
Cops in Najafgarh and other bordering areas like Kapshera are using decoys to trap the big fish. "However, many bootleggers are careful with traps. They don't entertain direct customers and go through reference of on-ground bootleggers," said an inspector.
As authorities step up efforts to combat bootlegging, the challenge lies in staying ahead of emerging trends and tactics that threaten to undermine law and order.