Hyderabad: The hologram and barcode printed on the labels of liquor bottles have become an unexpected tool for the police to crack cases which seem to have no other tools.
Together with the CCTV footage that was made mandatory at liquor shops by the Excise department, the so-called Hedonic Path Finder System (HPFS) has become quite a crime buster.
The most recent instance where the barcode-CCTV combo came in use was the cracking of a murder case in Keesara.
On January 29, the Keesara cops found the body of an unidentified man that was partially burnt and was putrefying at Dharmaram Hills. Police found a liquor bottle at the site, and its barcode took the police to a liquor shop at Pudur crossroads. Police secured the approximate time of sale of the bottle from the billing system, and checked the CCTV footage from the shop. It showed two persons accompanying the victim, who was later identified as B. Srinivas. The cops traced the duo who confessed upon questioning that Srinivas’ wife had him murdered.
The senior Excise official said the HPFS was meant to track every bottle of liquor that is legally sold in the state. It helps control illegal sale of liquor at the retail outlets, prevents trafficking, monitors revenue generation and controls revenue leakage. “We can easily trace the people who sold the liquor,” he said.
In April last year, the Sanathnagar police solved the murder of 43-year-old driver Mohd Khaja, whose body was found on railway tracks, and arrested his wife Saleha Begum, her lover Mohd Tabrez Qureshi and four others. In that case as well, the main clue came from a liquor bottle.
Tracking the bottle, the police landed at a wine mart in Madhapur, where CCTV footage showed Khaja consuming alcohol with a few others. The Sanathnagar police questioned them and found that Khaja had been killed on the instructions of his wife, and his body placed on the rail tracks to make it look like a suicide.
The liquor bottle came in handy in July last year when the Choutuppal police found the body of an unidentified man on the outskirts of Ankireddygudem with his throat cut. Police found a full bottle of whisky with barcode 008842843 at the spot.
Working with the Excise department, the police learned that the bottle was sold to Sri Mayuri Wine Shop, Lakdikapul, Hyderabad. On checking the CCTV footage, the victim was identified as Panchal Sachin. Upon investigation, police found that his stepmother Panchal Jagadevi had ordered the murder as he had rejected her attempt to marry one of her daughters with one Ghousuddin.
