Over 100 cases of liquor found stolen from Bevco warehouse

The theft came to light after the excise seized 59 litres of IMFL from two persons at Varkala recently.
For representational purposes
For representational purposes

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: More than 100 cases of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), which were stored in the warehouse of Kerala State Beverages Development Corporation (Bevco), have been found to be stolen.The exact number of  cases stolen is  yet to be estimated by the excise department.  Attingal police have registered a case in this regard and  a  probe is on.

The theft came to light after the excise seized 59 litres of IMFL from two persons at Varkala recently. The excise sleuths found that the IMFL made in Kerala had no government seal. This raised suspicion that the seized liquor could have been stolen from the Bevco warehouse. During the course of excise investigation by verifying the batch number of liquor cases, it emerged that the stolen liquor was from the warehouse at Attingal. The theft might have occurred on May 9.  Later, the excise scoured the CCTV footage, which showed that two persons broke into the warehouse and stole the liquor cases.

Interestingly, the frontdoor of the warehouse was found  to be locked. Hence, the police suspect that the thieves might have entered the building after breaking the roof made of aluminum sheet.  The keys to the warehouses are with the warehouse managers and respective excise range officers.

“ Since the liquor outlets and bars remain closed in the wake of the second wave of the pandemic, the warehouses in the district were locked down. Strangely, we have recently seized liquor bottles manufactured by distillery units in Kerala. But they did not have the seal of the government. Thus we conducted a probe and found that  liquor cases had gone missing. Since it is a theft case, the police have taken over the case. The excise will carry out checks at other warehouses in the district to find out whether similar thefts had occurred there ,” said G Harikrishna Pillai, assistant excise commissioner, excise enforcement and anti-narcotic special squad, Thiruvananthapuram.

According to the police, they have identified the suspects  from the CCTV footage. “ Efforts are on to nab the culprits. We suspect that more persons are involved as it is a major theft,” said T Rajesh Kumar,  inspector of police, Attingal.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com