Spurious Liquor Case: Main Accused Janardhan Rao Sent To Judicial Remand Up To Oct. 17

The excise sleuths grilled Rao for several hours on Saturday after taking him into custody at Vijayawada Airport as he arrived from South Africa on Friday.

The excise sleuths in the remand report mentioned several issues on his involvement in the case. Accordingly, Rao was involved in the liquor business since 2012, and as he faced financial crisis during the Covid-19 period, he focussed on making spurious liquor from 2021.

He moved to Hyderabad and started sending the spurious liquor to Ibrahimpatnam in plastic tins of 35 litres with labels affixed as 'phenol' to avoid detection. He started a bar in Hyderabad in 2022 and continued to send spurious liquor to his ANR bar in Ibrahimpatnam. In 2023, he went to Goa and became acquainted with a Telugu man called Balaji, who used to send raw material to Rao for making spurious liquor in the ANR bar, and another accused in the case, Ravi, who used to supply fake labels from Hyderabad.

In the last elections held in 2024, the spurious liquor business was temporarily stopped due to high vigilance by the law-enforcing authorities.

In May 2025, Rao started the spurious liquor business in Mulakalacheruvu and also in Ibrahimpatnam and was named as the main accused in the case.