Dhar (Madhya Pradesh): Seizure of hundreds of cartons of a certain brand of beer in the last few days, all arriving from the same route and apprehended by Dhar district police and excise department, has left many questions unanswered.
Both Excise and local police have the same reply, "They caught the consignment before it was transported to Gujarat. Driver fled the spot leaving the vehicle behind or an investigation is underway".
Meanwhile, the seizure of hundreds of cartons of beer of a particular brand indicates tribal dominated Dhar, Alirajpur and Jhabua districts becoming a dumping ground.
Big players of the game
For the last many years, a liquor syndicate is operating in Dhar, Alirajpur and Jhabua districts. Low-quality Mount beer is produced in large quantity in these tribal-dominated districts. As a result, it is easily available in the area and consumed in large quantity.
Due to high demand and low price, beer is not only the favourite of tribals, but also of black marketers.
While liquor contractor often fail to get proper supply of the beer in the summer season, it is easily available in black market.
A probe by Free Press revealed that many players from Gandhwani to Alirajpur, Dhar and Indore were involved in the scam and were running a parallel business.
Some of the black marketeers from Gandhwani meet contractors in Indore and then send their vehicles to the warehouse on different pretext. The vehicles are loaded with Mount Beer and transported directly to Dhar, Alirajpur and Jhabua.
The Indore warehouse currently has a stock of 1 to 1.5 lakh boxes of Blackfort Beer. However, Indore contractors are picking up Mount Beer in online permit. These boxes costing around Rs 2,400 are then supplied to black marketers for Rs 1,500 to 1,600.
Formality in the name of investigation
Whenever a large quantity of illicit liquor/beer is seized, the standard reply of the Excise and the police is that the driver fled leaving the vehicle behind or the driver and the cleaner have been arrested. The investigation to identify the real mastermind remains pending and the real accused is never caught.
When contacted Dhar SP Manoj Kumar Singh said that the police were investigating the case of illegal liquor caught in the past and soon the accused would be revealed.
Cases in last two days
May 5 at 4 am: Dhar Excise department team seized about 520 boxes of Mount Beer from an Eicher truck in Pithampur.
May 6: Gandhwani and Tanda police team in a joint operation seized 1,400 boxes of Mount Beer from a truck near a stone crusher plant in Jamli village in the afternoon.
May 6: In the evening, police seized about 90 boxes of Mount Beer from a pick-up at Bhensola village under Badnawar police station limit of Dhar district.
