GUNTUR: The district police have arrested six persons for illegally transporting 9,096 NDPL bottles worth Rs 21.65 lakh in a water tanker. The police also confiscated a car and water tanker. The accused have been identifed as K Nagamalleswara Rao, B Krishna, K Venu Babu, B Venkaiah, P Gopi Nagaraju and V Venkata Rao.
Addressing newsmen on Saturday, Guntur Rural Superintendent of Police Vishal Gunni said acting on a tip off, the police have seized the highest cache of NDPL till now. He said that prime accused Nagamalleswara Rao operated from Vijayasai Women’s PG Hostel at Gachibowli in Hyderabad for the past three years. He also used to supply drinking water by a water tanker.
Explaining the modus operandi, the SP said when Nagamalleswara Rao lost all his savings during the lockdown, he hatched a plan to earn money by selling non-duty paid liquor (NDPL) in Andhra Pradesh.
He befriended one B Krishna and they together bought 60 cases of brandy worth Rs 3 lakh and sold the stock within a few days for a profit of Rs 1.5 lakh.
Greed taking the better of them, the duo decided to buy NDPL bottles and went to Hyderabad on September 1. They collected an amount of Rs 13 lakh. When the Metro Wine Shop refused to sell them liquor worth Rs 13 lakh, one Naveen assured to do the needful for a commission of Rs 8,000. They purchased 9,096 liquor bottles by paying Rs 12.39 lakh and transported the liquor to Hyderabad outskirts and then loaded the liquor bottles into the water tanker.
When they reached Pondugala check-post, the accused changed the route following intensive police checking, Vishal Gunni said. They reached Munugodu village on September 3 night via Suryapet, Kodad and Garikapadu check-posts and asked one of their friends V Venkateswara Rao to keep an eye on the liquor bottles, while they visited Abburu village in Sattenapalli mandal in Guntur district.
On a suspicion, the police reached the water tanker and on examining it, recovered 9,096 liquor bottles and seized the vehicle. Krishna, Venu Babu, Venkata Rao and Nagaraju returned in a car and Nagamalleswara Rao, Ashok and Naveen on a motorcycle to the waiting arms of the police, the SP said.
Guntur Urban police file 198 cases, arrest 331
The Guntur urban district police has filed 198 cases and arrested 331 accused involved in illegal transportation of liquor. The police booked 22 cases against locally-made arrack, seized 2,460 litres of liquor bottles, including 90 beer bottles, 1,098 750 ml liquor bottles, 54 375 ml liquor bottles, 8,735 180 ml liquor bottles in Guntur urban district.
The Guntur rural district police registered 486 cases and 804 accused were arrested up to August 31. They seized 676.50 litres of arrack, 485 litres of fermented jaggery wash, 12,761 NDPL bottles, 37.93 litres of beer bottles, 219.82 litres of IMFL and a total of 69,538 liquor bottles in Guntur rural district.