The seizure of over 5,000 illicit liquor bottles brought from Villupuram for sale through select Tasmac bars in the district has unearthed a network involved in this highly profitable illegal trade.
The spurious liquor prepared at Villupuram either by diluting rectified spirit or adding appropriate colour to illicit arrack is handed over to bar owners for sale. Besides the liquor bottles, the bar owners are also given fake Excise Department stickers to be pasted on the cap of the bottle.
“Each bar owner will be given 1,000 bottles (180 ml) at a time and the cost of 500 bottles should be settled immediately on arrival of ‘fresh stock’ every time. A bottle is sold for Rs. 40 to the bar owner, who, in turn, sells it to consumers at an inflated cost of Rs. 120,” a bar attendant said.
Prior to the arrival of the spurious liquor, the bar owners had another way of making money. They would buy from the Tasmac outlet supervisor the entire quantum of low cost liquor varieties for sale in the bar.
“The bar owners used to buy all low-cost liquor bottles being sold anywhere between Rs. 80 and 85 from the supervisors and create an artificial demand in the outlet. Then they would sell the low-cost varieties in the bars for Rs. 120. When the arrival of low-cost bottle to the outlets dwindled, the sale of spurious liquor started,” revealed the bar attendant.
To prevent the sale of spurious liquor, the Prohibition Enforcement Wing had its units at Valliyoor, Alangulam and Sankarankovil. However, the units at Valliyoor and Sankarankovil were closed as the PWE wing claimed that there was no sale of spurious liquor or illicit arrack. The unit at Alangulam is alive. A few policemen joined together to start an illicit wing of PEW at Valliyoor, which was detected by the then Superintendent of Police K.S. Narenthiran Nayar, who placed under suspension the erring policemen.
Against this backdrop, the sale of spurious liquor in Tasmac bars has shocked the officials . The ADSP of PEW, R. Radhika, maintained that there was no sale of illicit liquor in the bars and the illegally brought liquor was sold in rural areas only by a few individuals during temple festivals.
