34 bootleggers picked up in city

SURAT, Nov 16: In a raid carried out by the prohibition police on Monday morning, 1035 bottles of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) worth Rs...

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SURAT, Nov 16: In a raid carried out by the prohibition police on Monday morning, 1035 bottles of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) worth Rs 1.46 lakhs were seized from 34 people, all residing in the Navapura area of Golwad of the city, who were returning from a trip to Daman.

One Pravin Jaikishandas Rana, the main accused, however escaped before the the police could intercept the bus and has been declared an absconder. While the luxury bus has been confiscated by the police, cases against all the accused — including the bus owner Mahendra Lakdawala — have been registered in the Surat (South) prohibition police station.

Sixteen of the 34 arrested are women, residing in adjoining houses in Navapura area, which is notorious for liquor smuggling, the police said, adding that the value of the bus was Rs 5 lakh, making the total seizure worth Rs 6.46 lakhs.

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According to Prohibition Superintendent M G Kaneria, the police acting on prior information, laid a trap near the Wadi Falia bus stop area of the city. As soon as the bus (GJ 5 Z 81) turned into the Wadi Falia area at around 9.30 am, the prohibition police intercepted it, but not before Rana jumped off the bus and escaped.

On checking the baggages in the vehicle, the police seized cans and bottles of beer and whisky of a number of foreign makes.

“It seemed as if the accused went to Daman with the only objective to smuggle liquor,” Kaneria said.

According to the police, Rana organised tours to Daman every Sunday along with Lakdawala and used this opportunity to smuggle liquor. Most of the accused, who are traditionally in the liquor business, embarked on the trip on Saturday night and were returning to the city, when they were arrested, the police said. This is incidentally, the first seizure in many months from the Golwad area, where police teams have been stoned if they attempted to carry out raids.

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Among those who conducted the raid were Superintendent M G Kaneria, Prohibition PSI S M Nikam and constables Kanu, Yuvaraj, Jagannath, Ranjit, Jagdish, Sayyed and Shankar.