BHUBANESWAR: Four members of a family were arrested on the charges of attacking excise department officials, who had gone to conduct a raid at their house on Thursday to check the alleged sale of illicit liquor during the lockdown period.
The accused persons included a woman and her two sons and a daughter of Bharatpur area in the city. They are Kumari Nayak (45), her sons - Arun Nayak (29) and Dhusa Nayak (18) and daughter Sunita Nayak (20).
Sources said a team of excise officers was assaulted by the four with iron rods and wooden sticks when they were conducting a raid at their house following an allegation of illicit liquor trade.
The 16-member team, led by officer-in-charge (OIC) of Bhubaneswar Excise station-3 Nilima Jayanti Swain, raided the house at about 9 am and seized over 30 litre illicitl-distilled (ID) liquor from the spot.
During the raid, they launched an all out attack on the excise personnel in which four staff sustained injuries.
Swain then contacted Bharatpur police following which a PCR van reached the spot. "All four members of the family started attacking the personnel who were conducting the raid. Locals also gathered preventing the us to carrying out duty. The personnel attempted to defend themselves but some of them sustained injuries in the attack," said an Excise officer.
The Excise station-3 covers Tamando, Bharatpur, Khandagiri, Chandaka, Airfield, and Lingaraj areas in the city.
Later, Kumari, her two sons and daughter were taken to Bharatpur police station. "Based on the complaint of the excise officer, a case has been registered under Sections 294, 307, 323, 341, 353, 427, 506 and 34 of IPC," said an officer of Bharatpur police station.