BHUBANESWAR: Excise officials here on Sunday arrested four persons, including a Border Security Force (BSF) sepoy, on charges of smuggling huge quantities of duty free liquor from Meghalaya into the state. The excise sleuths seized 800 bottles of whisky and rum worth over Rs 4 lakh. For the first time, the excise officials here busted a racket on smuggling of ‘duty free’ liquor.
The BSF sepoy was identified as Susanta Kumar Behera, 39, posted at 39 Battalion in Khurda. The other three accused were identified as Amiya Kumar Sethy, Tutu Behera and Umesh Pradhan. “All the four are residents of Jagannath Prasad in Ganjam district. Behera was caught wearing uniform. The other three are his friends,” said Bhubaneswar excise inspector Debi Prasad Dash. Excise officers swooped on the accused near Old Station Bazaar when they were on their way to Ganjam in two vehicles after getting down from Guwahati-Puri Express here in the afternoon. To hoodwink the government railway police and railway ticket inspectors, the accused stashed the bottles in several bags and trunks in a second class sleeper coach, excise department sources said. “After alighting from the train, they loaded liquor in a vehicle. We were shocked as to how they managed to dodge security personnel in stations in Guwahati and Bhubaneswar,” said another excise officer.
The accused were planning to sell the smuggled liquor in Ganjam during the Durga Puja. “The BSF jawan, who is the mastermind, told us that he was eyeing hefty profits by selling the liquor in Ganjam and other places. While he purchased each bottle at Rs 150 in Meghalaya, he aimed to make nearly 120% profit on each bottle,” Dash said. He denied the liquor was purchased from any defence canteen stores department unit.
The excise officials said they would further interrogate the accused to know whether they were into liquor smuggling in other states.
