CANACONA
In an unusual twist to the seizure of liquor worth Rs 9.74 lakh from three houses at Tirval-Poinguinim in the vicinity of Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary, there are now claims that the three sites had permits to stock liquor.
While Canacona police handed over the case along with the confiscated liquors to the excise department for further action in the matter, they have let off all eight persons detained during the raid at the three premises in the wee hours of Thursday.
According to sources, all three store-houses have related licenses and permits to stock liquor. “The store-houses are not new and have been existing since many years with permissions from authorities,” said the source.
What has now surprised many is the existence of storage-houses permitted within the jurisdiction of Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary. All eyes are now on the investigation by the excise department to ascertain the legality or illegality of stocks confiscated by the police.
When contacted, Canacona Excise Inspector Shamba Naik confirmed that the police have already handed over the case papers and the liquor consignments confiscated by police from the three storage houses at Tirval-Poinguinim.
“Yes, we have taken over the liquor stocks confiscated from the Tirval storage houses and the related case papers of the police search operations in view of the upcoming Lok sabha polls conducted in the wee hours of Thursday. We can’t say anything more, but we are conducting our investigations into the case,” Naik said.
A Canacona police team led by Canacona SDPO DySP Tikam Singh Verma and PI Chandrakant Gawas in a midnight search operation had nabbed four persons trafficking head-loads of liquor to Karnataka through the Tirval forest.
Later in a search operation, the police found three storage houses in the Tirval forest close to the border with Karnataka stocking different brands of liquor, Palm and Cashew feni. Police had also rounded up four owners of the storage houses.
Interestingly, while Tirval ward and Marlim ward falls under the revenue village of Poinguinim, the residential as well as forest areas comes under Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary and the only road access is through Cotigao village, which has two forest gates before reaching the two wards.
