Enforcement of ban on belt shops in the district appears to have lost its force to some extent due to the Supreme Court ruling. According to the ruling, in case of crimes where the imprisonment is below seven years, the accused cannot be sent in remand. As a result, belt shop operators, even if they were caught by the Excise police, can walk out of any Excise and Prohibition station just by obtaining a station bail.
It is learnt that across the 13 districts in the State, the belt shops are running clandestinely, despite the ban, as the fear of getting caught and being imprisoned has reduced considerably because of the Apex Court’s ruling.
The Prohibition and Excise Department booked 679 cases, arrested 693 persons, and seized about 7,600 bottles from belt shop operators in Visakhapatnam district. “The statistics are from June 8, the day when Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu declared a ban, to November- end,” said Deputy Commissioner of Prohibition and Excise M. Satyanarayana.
When asked about the impact of the court directive, Mr. Satyanarayana said: “What we do is book the operators once caught under CrPC section 110 (Security for good behaviour from habitual offenders) and open a dossier sheet. Every time an offender is caught, an entry is made in the sheet and a case is built up. Later, we approach the Magistrate to send the offender in remand, as he is a public nuisance.”
Coming to rate violation cases (selling liquor over and above the MRP), the department so far booked 15 cases and collected a fine to the tune of Rs. 15 lakh.
On the seizure of dry ganja in the district, the department so far booked 79 cases, arrested 150 smugglers, seized over 12.8 MT of dry ganja and 49 vehicles used for transporting the contraband and destroyed about 1.20 lakh ganja plants spread over 22 acres in the Agency areas.