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Monday, Jun 02, 2008
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One of spirited operations that yield huge haul

Rajesh B. Nair

— Photo: T.Singaravelou

HUGE HAUL: The seized cans containing rectified spirit kept at the Excise Department 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.

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