BHUBANESWAR: A jawan of the Border Security Force (BSF) along with three others was arrested by Khurda district excise officials from the Capital City for allegedly smuggling illicit liquor.
They are BSF jawan Sushant Kumar Behera and three local handlers Umesh Pradhan of Daruthenga in Bhubaneswar and Amulya Sethi and Tutu Behera of Jagannath Prasad in Ganjam district.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of Khurda district mobile excise squad intercepted a pick-up van and seized 600 litres of illicit liquor from the vehicle, Excise Inspector Sarat Chandra Bhanja said.
There were more than 800 bottles of IMFL of different brands packed in bags and iron trunks. Behera had procured the liquor bottles from Khanapara on Assam-Meghalaya border. Sushant took the Guwahati-Chennai Express and arrived in the City on Saturday night.
While he and the three local handlers were about to leave for Ganjam, the excise sleuths intercepted them.
Excise sources said Sushant was posted in Meghalaya for last five years and recently transferred to Odisha. He makes a profit of Rs 300 per bottle by selling the smuggled liquor in the State. In December 2014, the racketeer in uniform had made Rs 2.5 lakh by selling off a consignment which he had smuggled in a similar manner.
“We have registered a case under relevant sections of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance (NDPS) Act. The accused were produced in the court which remanded them in judicial custody,” Bhanja said.
