Bhubaneswar: Timely action by the Commissionerate of Police has averted a possible tragedy occurring in the narrow bylanes of the city slums.
On Tuesday, a joint team of the Special Squad and Nayapali police carried out raids in Salia Sahi slum here and seized a substantial quantity of country liquor while it was being prepared, and the ready-to-be-sold products.
The raid was carried out based on a tip-off about the brewing of hooch in a number of houses inside Salia Sahi. The circumstances under which the liquor was being prepared were unhygienic and unscientific, the police said.
DCP Prateek Singh said that the activity catches momentum during the festival season. Now that the Durga Puja season is approaching, illegal liquor manufacturing and sale was on a rise. But the raid today has prevented a huge quantity of illicit hooch from reaching the grey market.
During raid 10 houses were searched and 420 litres of ID liquor was seized. Apart from this, 14,000 litres of formented rice have been destroyed along with seizure of 423 utensils out of which 200 utensil destroyed at the spot and 223 numbers utensils and other apparatus used for distillation of liquor have also been seized.
In this connection Nayapalli police have registered a case under Sectoin 52 (a) (i) of Odisha Excise Act and six persons have been arrested. The raid was carried out in IDCO Basti of Salia Sahi, led by 2 ACP-ranked officers, 4 IICs, 12 SIs and four platoons force.
