Excise department cracks whip on bootleggers

ALLAHABAD: Cracking a whip on

illegal liquor trade

during

poll season

, the excise department seized over 6,146 litres of liquor, including 282 litres of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (

IMFL

) and 5,864 litres of country-made liquor between January 4 and February 4.

Senior excise inspector, Amit Mishra, said teams of excise department had conducted 683 raids in the past one month and registered a total of 387 cases against illegal liquor manufactures and suppliers at different police stations of the district.

He added that the department, in the same period, had also arrested 81 people on charges of smuggling and manufacturing illegal liquor.

Officials of the department claimed that a total of three check posts have been set up by the excise department to check the illegal supply and manufacturing of IMFL, beer and country-made liquor, and 379 cases were registered against people involved in smuggling and manufacturing spurious liquor.

Mishra, meanwhile, said that as spurious liquor is majorly being distributed in villages during poll season, the department conducted 671 raids at the hideouts of spurious liquor manufacturing\ smuggling units.