The Hindu : Kerala News : Parking lots become spirit delivery points Law & order

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Saturday, Sep 29, 2007
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Kerala

Parking lots become spirit delivery points Law & order

This new method effectively prevents any leak of information to law enforcers, writes
G. Anand

Spirit smugglers and their clients are using parking lots in the city as transaction points, according to Excise Department officials. The method of operation of smugglers is to park a spirit-laden vehicle at a prearranged place. The client, who is given a duplicate key in advance, will unload the spirit and hand back the vehicle at a different predetermined location.

This new practice leaves little room for treachery among spirit traders and effectively prevents any leak of information to law enforcers. The smuggler does not know where the spirit is unloaded and the client will not be able to trace the smuggler’s warehouse, officials said.

On Friday, Excise enforcers seized 1000 litres of spirit from two different cars. One was parked in front of a hospital at Murinjapalam and the other near the Railway station.

Contraband spirit is mainly used for making artificial toddy. The substance is retailed through toddy shops run in the name of others by persons accused in spirit smuggling cases. The licences are often of name lenders who hail from the lower strata of society.

At least in one proven instance in Kollam, the licensee of a toddy shop turned out to be a 74-year-old woman. A man had died on a prohibition day last month after consuming excess quantity of alcohol from the outlet.

According to Excise Department sources, a Pravachambalam-based spirit smuggling group operates at least 10 toddy shops in the district. There are 36 licenced toddy outlets in Thiruvananthapuram Excise Range. Similar gangs run many of the other outlets on a ‘benami’ basis. They rake in huge profits by selling artificial toddy- mixed spirit and other noxious substances such as chloral hydrate (a cheap sedative), official sources said.

Prohibition activists alleged that Excise inspections of toddy shops had become almost predictable, thus emboldening the spirit mafia to openly retail contraband spirit sourced from distilleries in Andhra Pradesh.

Most of the spirit is unloaded in secret warehouses in Marthandam and Karinkal in neighbouring Tamil Nadu. It is then smuggled in small quantities into the district through inland waterways, sea routes, road and rail networks.

The Excise Department is all set to notify the chemical composition of natural toddy. The notification, based on the findings of the Kerala Agricultural University , will provide government chemical examiners a scientific yardstick for analysing toddy samples seized from shops.

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