Goa-made liquor seized in Belagavi
BELAGAVI
Officials of Karnataka Excise department arrested one person and seized a truck carrying Goa-made liquor worth Rs 6.40 lakh along the Belagavi-Hyderabad highway near Sambra, late Wednesday evening.
Apart from busting a possible nexus between Goa and Andhra Pradesh, one person has been arrested and a mini truck worth Rs 3 lakh has been seized.
According to the information given by the officials, acting on specific information, the excise officials under the direction of Joint Commissioner Y Manjunath seized the mini truck (GA-08-T-5699) along the Belagavi-Hyderabad highway near Sambra, late Wednesday evening.
The mini truck was loaded with about 320 boxes of Goa made vodka, whisky, etc. The truck was loaded at a distillery at Tivim Industrial Estate, officials said.
Mini truck driver Damodar Aparao (52) of Orissa was arrested, while the cleaner managed to flee taking advantage of darkness.
Interrogations revealed that the mini truck was heading towards Icchapuram in Vishakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh. However, every bottle was covered with plastic, officials said.
“This is certainly a big nexus as the bottles did not carry lables. This was intended at duplication of liquor in Andhra Pradesh. After reaching that state those involved in the nexus were to fix labels of local brands and sell the liquor there,” Joint Commissioner Manjunath told media persons.
A case was registered at Market police station.
