TEAM HERALD
CANACONA: Canacona Excise sleuths have seized 108 bottles of whiskey from a remote jungle of Polem, amid suspicion that the liquor was to be smuggled to the poll-bound Karnataka state.
“Soon after the government’s notification banning liquor sale from 5 pm from April 15 to April 17 came into force, the enforcement team began sensitizing the jungle area of Goa’s border with Karnataka, which went to polls on Thursday,” Canacona Excise Inspector Chandranath Desai told Herald.
“The enforcement team late Tuesday evening stumbled upon an abandoned consignment of 108 bottles of whiskey kept hidden in the jungle at Gaonkarwada-Polem.”
“The consignment worth Rs 8,700, which was later confiscated by the enforcement team, was apparently kept handy for onward transportation to Karnataka which went to polls on Thursday,” Desai said.
It may be recalled that the government in a notification had banned the sale of liquor in a 10 km range from Karnataka state. Accordingly, 85 liquor outlets, including 70 bars, 10 pet bottle license holders, one wholesale IMFL licence holder and four wholesale country liquor licence holders were asked to keep their shutters down until Thursday night.
Interestingly, since the Election Code of Conduct came into force in Goa following declaration of Lok Sabha elections, the Canacona Excise Flying Squads have conducted 359 raids and registered 18 cases (offenses), while seizing 2,723 bottles of IMFL and 369 bottles of country liquor, all worth about Rs 1.19 lakh.
Besides Canacona Excise Inspector Chandranath Desai, others who were part of the enforcement team that seized the consignment at Polem included Excise Inspector Durgadas Naik, excise officials Shuba Desai, Videsh Dhuri, Babu Vaidya, Madhu Naik, Suraj Gaonkar, Melvyn Araujo, Bharat Pagui and Vinod Naik.
