Acting on a tip off, a team of Jharkhand Excise Department’s Jamshedpur office raided a small illicit liquor manufacturing unit in a densely-populated area in Kadma on Monday morning.

The operation was being run from a residential house in Green Park residential area under Kadma thana. The team arrested a 55-year-old woman as part of the racket, but the man who ran the unit managed to escape.

Officials seized 40 litres of spirit, different Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) labels, corks, sealing machines and various kinds of colouring materials.

"When we raided the place, we found a 55-year-old woman alone there. After interrogating her, identified as Urmila Das, we got to know that the house belonged to her. We asked her about who ran the liquor unit, but she did not divulge any details," Excise inspector Mahendra Deogam told The Telegraph Online.

"The racket of manufacturing duplicate IMFL was running during the lockdown period when licensed shops were closed. But the racket continued even after liquor sale resumed from September," he added.

The arrested woman is still in the custody of the Jharkhand Excise office at Dhalbhum Road in Sakchi.

According to sources, Excise officials are trying to find out localities where the duplicate IMFL bottles were being supplied.