Liquor seizure: Excise Dept on hot pursuit of culprit

Liquor seizure: Excise Dept on hot pursuit of culprit
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
CANACONA, JULY 18
Excise officials are hotly in pursuit of the main culprit in the seizure of Rs 20 lakh worth illegally manufactured liquor at Loliem on Saturday, while the arrested business partner has succeeded in obtaining bail.
After conducting massive raid, which went past Saturday midnight, excise officials ultimately succeeded in the seizure of illegally packed IMFL of different well-known brands, Country liquor, stocked alcohol worth lakhs of rupees, besides sealing and filling machines and other raw materials like empty bottles, caps and labels of different brands.
According to Superintendent of Excise Navnath Naik, who led the raid on the massive illegal manufacturing and stocking unit at Shelim-Loliem, the lone arrested business partner John Minz is booked under excise Sections 5, 7, 8 and 9 for illegal manufacture, illegal possession of vast quantity of different IMFL brands, alcohol and machines and other raw materials, sale of liquor, illegal imports of excise materials, etc.
The accused was produced before JMFC Canacona on Saturday night itself, who granted him bail on personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and two sureties of Rs 50,000 each.
“John Minz was quizzed on Sunday also, but other then revealing the illegal supply he was making to Karnataka state regions, not much could be gathered from him, as the main culprit and prime accused, who is reportedly owner of these massive illegal operations, is still at large,” informed Naik.
Meanwhile, a team led by Canacona Excise Inspector Shamba Naik was in Shelim-Loliem till late Sunday evening to catch hold of the house and the alleged illegal activities owner.
“The prime accused is still not traceable and he had not visited his house or seen anywhere, after he hoodwinked excise personnel on Saturday and escaped through the thick forests of his house. Some of our guards had followed him, but he was not seen after that,” added Naik.
“He is a local and he can’t be on the run forever. We expect to nab him and book him for all the offenses at the earliest possible,” said Naik.
Naik replied in negative when asked if the raiding party or department bigwigs are getting any political pressure to go soft on the massive revelation of the illegal activities.
“Some locals told us that these massive activities are going on for the last 4-5 years without any check,” he said.
“Interrogation of the arrested person, a native of Jarkhand, did not reveal any other specific details or pointed fingers to any one else. It is too early to say anything, as the main culprit is also still at large,” Naik said.
Interestingly, this is the third success for the newly posted Canacona Excise Inspector Shamba Naik, after he was posted in Canacona two months ago.
Naik had recently seized IMFL bottles illegally trafficked through Konkan Railways from Canacona KRC station, while in the second instance, a person was arrested after this officer with his team camped for two days in Polem forests and finally caught the man, who was trafficking liquor to Karwar through Polem’ dense forests. The total worth of liquor in both these raids was about Rs 35,000.
In the latest success, Shamba is part of the massive raid conducted on a manufacturing unit situated almost in a forest area of Shelim, close to the border with Karnataka.