E-Paper
Prayagraj: UP excise department nabs 1,326 for illicit liquor trade in past three weeks
The state excise department carried out 38,624 raids in the last three weeks in which 4,354 cases were registered and 1,08,842 litre of illegal liquor was seized by the officials.
Continuing with its crackdown against the manufacture, sale and smuggling of illicit liquor in Uttar Pradesh, the state excise department carried out 38,624 raids in the last three weeks in which 4,354 cases were registered and 1,08,842 litre of illegal liquor was seized by the officials, informed Senthil Pandian C, excise commissioner of Uttar Pradesh.
Likewise, 2,88,890 kg of lahan used for manufacturing illicit liquor were also destroyed. During the crackdown, 1,326 persons dealing with illicit liquor were arrested and 451 accused were sent to jail even as 61 vehicles were confiscated, he added.
As part of the exercise, an inspection of liquor shops is also being done continuously along with checking on the dhabas (roadside eateries), restaurants and vehicles suspected of illegally serving liquor.
“In this crackdown, being carried out against illegal liquor, support of district administration, police, GST and transport departments is being taken,” the excise commissioner said.
Pandian said that during this action, illegal foreign liquor worth lakhs was recovered in Jalaun, Bulandshahr and Badaun districts. The joint action by excise, STF and police in Jalaun during the night road checking led to the seizure of 272 boxes of premium liquor being smuggled for sale in Chandigarh and the arrest of two accused who have been booked and tried under the relevant sections of the IPC, he added.
Similarly, during road checking in district Badaun, a total of 25 bottles of foreign liquor being smuggled for sale in Delhi were recovered from 7 persons and they too were booked.
Likewise, during road checking on the Noida-Bulandshahr road by a joint team of excise and police in Bulandshahr, a DCM vehicle in which a huge quantity of junk was being transported was checked on suspicion by the team. This led to the recovery of a total of 226 cases of illicit liquor/beer of different types worth ₹13 lakh permitted for sale in Chandigarh. FIR under relevant sections was registered in this connection also, he added.
In districts of Gautam Budh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Meerut and Hapur, every suspicious vehicle coming from the Delhi border besides suspicious vehicles coming from the Haryana border are also being continuously monitored by the excise team at the checkpoints of Kairana, Bidauli, Sarsanwa and Bhopura that led to several seizures and arrests.
The excise commissioner said that teams have been deployed for effective prevention of liquor smuggling on other routes as well. Along with this, a vigil is being kept on the infamous places of manufacture and sale of illicit liquor besides brick kilns and suspicious Dhabas, restaurants located on National/State Highways and link roads in other districts of the state.
