TN EB CID busts multi-state liquor racket in state

CHENNAI: In a major operation the Enforcement Bureau-CID officers have busted a spurious liquor network operating from Karnataka, seized liquor bottles and arrested 14 people in this connection.

A release from EB-CID here said that based on a tip-off, a history-sheeted offender from Tiruchy was caught red-handed while transporting spurious liquor by CIU Team Tiruchy. A storage place (shed) located at Tiruchy City was searched and 750 ml x 644 bottles of liquor bottles were seized.

Interrogation revealed that he received spurious liquor bottles transported from Bangalore to Tiruchy City in a plastic drum through Pon Pure Logistics and has sold them to customers.

Based on this information, the CIU team, Madurai, conducted raids at Virudhunagar district and found 750 ml x 264 bottles at a house located on the Virudhunagar-Arupukottai Road at Periyavallikulam village and arrested one MKVeeraraj.

The information was also shared with the Tirunelveli City Police and a house located at Tirunelveli City was searched and 750 ml x 1,026 bottles and Hologram (1 Roll) were seized by the team.

Further enquiry revealed that one Marirajan of Ottapidaram in Thoothukudi district settled in Goa was the main organiser of spurious liquor from Karnataka.

The EB-CID team, on information, secured one Kesavamoorthy (50) from Bangalore and confirmed that many consignments of spurious liquor bottled, labelled as 'for defence service only' and concealed inside a plastic barrel and labelled as chemicals were distributed to various places in Tamil Nadu for the past more than one year by Marirajan.

The manufacturing place and the godown were located by the special team in Bangalore.

Further enquiry revealed that all the contrabands were dispatched through ABT Parcel Service and Pon Pure logistics from Bangalore.

Based on that information raids were organised to verify the places and arrest the accused in Krishnagiri, Dindigul, Sankarankoil, Marthandam and Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu.

The special team from Tiruchy arrested Marirajan from Goa and remanded him after interrogation by Tiruchy City PEW.

The entire operation was directly supervised by Dr A Amalraj, ADGP/EBCID and N.M. Mylvahanan, IGP/ Enforcement.

Tamil Nadu DGP Shankar Jiwal appreciated the special teams consisting of Inspectors/CIU Raman, Elango and Saravanan and headed by Ms V. Shyamala Devi SP/ CIU, for the successful operation.

STATEWIDE OPERATION

In Krishnagiri, Muniyappan, Murugan and Sakthi were arrested and 47 bottles of spurious liquor were seized.

In Dindigul, Sheikh Abdulla was arrested and 136 bottles of spurious liquor were seized.

In Sankarankoil, Ayyanar and Velraj were arrested and 300 bottles were seized.

In Marthandam, Selvaraj was arrested and 11 bottles of various brands were seized.