The South 24-Parganas police conducted raids through Wednesday to bust a racket in fake licences for foreign liquor shops. Four persons were arrested, said S.N. Gupta, district superintendent of police.

Investigations revealed that the gang of four had earned nearly Rs 50 lakh by issuing the fake licences. It had been operating for the past year and had issued 12 fake licences.

According to police, kingpin Parthapratim Goswami claimed during interrogation that he had graduated from Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission college and was a post-graduate from Jadavpur University.

“We are probing his antecedents,” police said. Parthapratim was arrested two years ago in connection with a land scam in Kasba.

The three other members of Parthapratim’s gang have been identified as Dipak Dey, Dipak Sarkar and Barun Majumdar. All are in their mid-30s, police said.

Superintendent Gupta said a tip-off preceded the raids at Garia, Tangra and Subhasgram, in the Sonarpur area. A large number of fake documents was seized, including application forms used by the gang for issuing fake licences.

A complaint had been lodged by some of the 12 persons the gang had issued fake licences to. The victims alleged they had paid the gang between Rs 2.50 lakh and Rs 4.50 lakh for a single licence.

A luxury car was also impounded from the house of Parthapratim.