HYDERABAD: Dependence on liquor to lure the voters seems to have just doubled this election year. The Telangana Prohibition and Excise department officials have has seized 4.58 lakh litres of alcohol during their checks and it is expected to cross the five-lakh mark, which would be close to double of 2.85 lakh litres seized in the 2014 elections held in the State.
There is a reason to assume more liquor would be seized as officials from the department said that usually, attempts to distribute liquor among people increases on the morning of elections and two-days prior to it, to influence voters choice.
The liquor seized includes beer, Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL)-rum, whisky and others, illegally distilled liquor (Gudumba), toddy. All of this seized liquor would be destroyed either by crushing the bottles or draining alcohol into ground. Cases are booked after the seizures and investigation will be taken up later.
Principal secretary and commissioner of Telangana Prohibition and Excise Department Somesh Kumar said that worth of the 4.58 lakh litres of liquor, seized from September to December 3, is `8.6 crore. “Our objective is to prevent distribution of liquor to lure voters,” the principal secretary Somesh Kumar said.
Liquor from Haryana and Goa seized
The contestants are exploring all sources to procure, dump and distribute liquor. In one of the biggest seizures in this elections, the excise department’s officials recovered a dump of whooping 699 cases of IMFL bottles-which is a truck load. The dump which was recovered from a farm house in Mahabubnagar, was procured from Goa. This was a joint operation of police and Excise department. Apart from this, another 200 cases were seized which too were procured from a neighbouring State. This was procured from Haryana and smuggled into the State. Usually, only a few thousand litres of non-duty paid liquor is smuggled into the State was seized. This too has come down after a few key players of illegal trade were caught by the department.