Assam Minister takes lead in cracking down on liquor syndicate

Guwahati (Assam), Aug 10, 2018

Excise Minister Parimal Suklabaidya took the lead in the ongoing State government’s crackdown against illegal liquor syndicate when he rode a road roller to smash hundreds of liquor bottles in Lokhra area here on Friday afternoon.

These bottles are from truckloads that were seized earlier by Excise Department and Bureau of Investigation of Economic Offences.

A huge inter-State syndicate running into crores of rupees was allegedly operating wherein Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) manufactured in Arunachal Pradesh were illegally transported into Assam’s Lakhimpur district, wherein labels of bottles were changed and subsequently sent to Nagaland for selling them illegally.

Assam’s Excise Department lost huge amounts of excise duty due to this illegal trade.

A major crackdown was subsequently launched by the Sarbananda Sonowal-led government and cases registered against bonded warehouse owners, liquor mafia (including Rajesh Jalan), and few Excise Department officials, some of whom were even arrested.