Liquor flowed unchecked in lodges too: DVAC
Kancheepuram district police, Prohibition Enforcement Wing, Tasmac and Excise department ‘coordinated well’ to make sure that as many as 101 illegal bars operated without any hassle in places like Kelambakkam and Mamallapuram, south of Chennai, after collecting bribes from bar owners, the DVAC FIR on a bar agent’s suicide has revealed.
By : migrator
Update: 2019-07-21 23:55 GMT
Chennai
Unable to pay the bribe after the amount was doubled, a bar agent identified as Nellaiyappan committed suicide in the last week of May outside the office of Mamallapuram DSP R Subburaju, who has been listed as accused number 1 in the DVAC document.
Many lodges and restaurants in Mamallapuram, Kelambakkam and Tiruporur, which are tourist places, were functioning with illegal bars. Mamallapuram DSP, inspectors of Kelambakkam, Tiruporur and Mamallapuram did not conduct any raid to book the violators. Instead, they received huge sums of money as bribe from owners of lodges and restaurants and shared among them, DVAC said.
The FIR has cited 10 officers from four departments as suspects and this includes at least 2 officers from PEW, who are still continuing in their offices.
All the officials were accused of conspiring with each other and abusing their official position by corrupt or illegal means after obtaining huge amounts of money as bribe from 2018 to till date from the owners of illegal bars. The accused officers failed to take action against the bar owners who did not have licence, thus created huge loss to the government for their personal gain.
Of the 106 liquor shops under the control of district manager, Tasmac Kancheepuram south, only five are the licensed bars and are located in Chengalpattu taluk.
Nellaiyappan was not able to pay huge bribe as demanded by DSP Subburaju, inspector Kannan and inspector Pandi. He suffered losses and committed suicide, DVAC noted citing the dying declaration of the victim.
The officers named in the FIR are R Subburaj, former Mamallapuram DSP; T Kannan, former inspector, Tiruporur; Iyyavu, former Kancheepuram south district manager, Tasmac; A Ahamed Ullah and M Balakrishnan, former assistant commissioners, Excise, Kancheepuram; A Manikkavelu, former ADSP, PEW, Kancheepuram; VA Ravichandran, DSP, PEW, Kancheepuram; M Pandi, former inspector, Kelambakkam station; M Chiranjeevi, former inspector, Mamallapuram PEW; and A Arokiaraj, inspector, Madurantakam, PEW.
Activist says no action taken on illegal functioning of Tasmac outlets in city
In the city, an activist pointed out that a number of bars were functioning illegally before and after the permitted time in localities like Korattur, Madhavaram and Puzhal. He had been trying to bring the attention of the police to the bars that were functioning in the early morning. As per rules, the liquor shops should be open only from 12 noon to 10 pm. Activist G Devaraj said that he had informed the city police control room about five bars functioning early in the morning. “One bar is functioning in Korattur, two bars in Madhavaram and two in Puzhal district,” he told DT Next. According to him he informed the police but there was no action from them.
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