Balasore: A consignment of smuggled Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) worth over Rs 1.88 lakh, which was meant for retail sale in Arunachal Pradesh, was seized during a raid jointly conducted by the Central Excise Intelligence and District Excise sleuths at a den here, Monday. Officials said Prasant Jena, 32, a bootlegger from Purushottampur and his associate, Rajendra Sahoo, 45, have been taken into custody. A case (No 173/2023-24) has been registered against the two under various sections of the Excise Act and they have been forwarded to a local court, officials said.
Excise sources said that on a tip-off, the sleuths carried out a raid at the residence and outlet run by Jena in Balgopalpur area under Remuna police station in this district. The smuggled consignment stocked with 20 cartoons was seized during searches. District Excise Superintendent Susanta Kumar Padhi, who led the raiding team comprising Jaleswar Excise Intelligence official Satyajit Khatua, Nilagiri Excise Inspector Galuram Soren, and District Mobile Excise unit official Kesab Das, said the investigation is on to find out how the smugglers managed to sneak the consignment into Odisha. It is also a matter of investigation to establish how long they had been carrying out the operations right under the nose of enforcement officials, sources said. It is reliably learnt that some authorised liquor traders are working in tandem with the traders of others states in pilfering illegal liquor consignments worth lakhs of rupees through various transport modes for years together.
Sources claimed that they would strike deals with trucks carrying goods to Arunachal to transport liquor from the northeastern state. The cargo would be offloaded and stored at Remuna which acts as an epicentre for the distribution network. The liquor obtained at a cheaper price is then sold across the coastal districts at premium rates. This is not only resulting in Odisha losing revenue worth several crores of rupees, but also helping the smugglers mint money, officials pointed out.