Other States - Puducherry   

Huge haul of rectified spirit in Puducherry

PUDUCHERRY: It was one of the swiftest operations ever carried out by the Excise Department, which led to the seizure of around 16,000 litres of rectified spirit from Thavamurugan, a bootlegger of Mullai Nagar at Kuruvinatham in Puducherry, on Saturday.

Revenue Department officials said the operation was in fact launched two months ago.

On Thursday night, a person posted by the Excise Department to monitor the movement of Thavamurugan informed the officials about the arrival of 500 cans of rectified spirit from Karnataka.

Following the tip-off, a team raided Mullai Nagar and seized the consignment after a battle with Thavamurugan’s men. Further raids conducted at Mullai Nagar revealed that several houses, where Thavamurugan had close contacts, had constructed sumps to conceal the rectified spirit.

“Intelligence gathering was so difficult that we had to adopt certain out-of-the-way methods to get information about his operation. Most of the villagers were his men and feared to reveal any information,” a senior official of the Excise Department told The Hindu.

According to Excise Officials, there were more than nine cases pending against him from 2001 in Puducherry and 3 cases in Tamil Nadu.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Bank meet for senior citizens
Relief package
Blood camp marks church centenary
Policemen awarded
Process of online banking will be completed by year-end: Chidambaram
Huge haul of rectified spirit in Puducherry

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu