Vellore SP takes drone route to weed out illicit distillers

VELLORE: Sunday was a busy day for the police in Vellore district as Superintendent of Police N Manivannan led a team of personnel on ‘clean hooch’ mission during which cops tracked and apprehended illicit distillers using drones on hills abutting Vellore and Pernambut.

Speaking to DT Next, Manivannan said, “Drones cover hilly terrain faster and can scan inaccessible locations on the hills. We took a drone on rent and deployed it to trace distillers on Sivanathapuram hills in Anaicut taluk. The technique of distillers — descend the hills in the direction opposite the police ascend -- did not pay this time as the drone tilted the camera to a 45-degree angle and took close shots of their faces for future identification.”

“Hooch raids were carried out in 48 locations by 45 teams in Vellore district during which 12,800 litres fermented wash and 793 litres illicit arrack were destroyed, around 200 grams ganja, 806 bottles of liquor and a two-wheeler were seized and 31 cases were registered and 20 distillers were arrested over the weekend,” Manivannan added.

The main focus of the team was on destroying the containers holding the fermented wash, a basic need for arrack distillation.

“While in some cases, the wash was in huge plastic drums with a capacity of 800 litres, in other areas, distillers had dug pits measuring an average man’s height, lined them with plastic sheets and placed the fermented wash in them.

“While the plastic containers were shredded by police, in the case of fermented wash in pits, cops had to literally stand in it and drain out with buckets which proved to be a task,” he added.

In Gudiyattam, Revathi (40), wife of Maheswaran, was arrested and remanded for hoarding 17 liquor bottles in her house. At Pernambut, Vishnu, son of Settu, Manjunathan, son of Manickam and Rajini, son of Vijayan, for hiding four lorry tubes containing a total of 120 litres arrack in their houses. All three were arrested and remanded.

Meanwhile in Tirupattur district, SP Albert John shunted four cops, Tirupattur taluk station special Sis, Sivaji and Vennila, head constable Vasantha and Vaniyambadi prohibition police constable Gopi, to the AR for their nexus with illicit distillers.

“The SP warned of stringent action if the inquiry against them found proof of their repeated collusion,” sources said.