KOCHI: After a lull, spirit smuggling resumed in Ernakulam as around 8,500 litres of spirit was recovered by the excise officials in two seizures reported in Kalamasserry and Aluva on Wednesday night.
Out of this, 1400 litres was seized from 40 cans kept in a truck that was bound to Idukki. The remaining quantity was seized from paint godown in Edayar industrial area in Aluva in a raid held based on the details collected from the truck driver. Two people have been arrested on Wednesday night itself and another person, who went absconding was arrested on Thursday evening.
The arrested has been identified as Baiju alias Kuttappai (50) of Thammanam, Sam Kumar (38) of Thrikkakara, who are the driver and cleaner of the truck respectively, and NV Kurian (65) of Kaloor, who is the owner of the godown. The officials suspect that the spirit was smuggled to make spurious liquor in the guise of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) as they seized bottle labels of several IMFL brands too from the godown.
The seizure was made by the state excise enforcement squad with the help of Aluva excise range officers. According to the officers, the truck was intercepted by the team in Kalamassery around 9pm on Wednesday based on information they received. The 40 cans, each with a capacity of 35 litres, were packed in cardboard boxes and claimed to be sanitiser that were being transported to Idukki. The details collected from them led to the seizure of 203 cans of spirit from the secret underground cabin of the paint godown in Edayar.
B Tenymon, assistant excise commissioner, Ernakulam, said that Kurian was arrested from his house in Kaloor but he has been admitted in Aluva Taluk hospital as he was physically unwell. “More details about the smuggling will be clear only after questioning him. A case has been registered under Section 55 of Abkari Act. Samples of the spirit will be given to the Regional Chemical Examiner’s Laboratory, Kakkanad, for testing,” he said.
The team that carried out the operation comprised of circle inspector Junaid P, narcotic enforcement squad CI Shibu PE, commissioner’s squad inspector Aswin Kumar, Aluva range inspector Ajiraj R, preventive officers ON Ajayakumar, Aneez, Vinesh, Satheesh, S Balu, Johnson TV, civil excise officers Sijumon S, Anoop Thomas, Jaleel K, ND Tomy, women CEO Jijimol M among others.
