Belagavi: Excise dept seizes huge quantity of high-end liquor transported illegally from Goa

Liquor had been concealed in plywood sheets in the vehicle to evade from being found.

Liquor hidden and transported illegally inside a truck in plywood stocks from Goa to Karnataka, was seized by the Excise Department sleuths on the Pune-Bengaluru national highway in the early hours of Saturday.

Seizure of huge quantity liquor of high-end brands reminds of the similar pattern shown in Telugu movie Pushpa wherein red sanders were transported under the trunk of milk tankers.

The process to count the liquor boxes and estimate their worth is in progress. The approximate value of the truck seized was Rs 25 lakh.

Joint Commissioner of Excise Y Manjunath informed reporters here on Saturday that based on the tip-off that, "High-end liquor in huge quantity was being transported from Goa into Karnataka. We kept a watch on all the vehicles coming from Goa. Suspicious vehicles were checked thoroughly."

"During checking of the vehicles near Suvarna Vidhan Soudha, we found the truck in which liquor was being transported. Driver Veerender from Varanasi confessed to carrying minimum quantity of Goan liquor but could not elaborate on his final destination. As it was 3:30 am, the vehicle was seized and driver detained," he added.

After the covers from the truck were removed at noon, first two rows were loaded with plywood and a small 180 ml liquor bottle was found. We felt that the tip-off must have gone wrong, but when few more plywood sheets in the rows behind the cabin were removed, we were shocked to find huge quantity of liquor. Plywood sheets had been cut square and liquor boxes had been placed inside it. Its for the first time that we came across liqour being transported by concealing it in the plywood sheets. It is also used as cover box to evade stocks being found during check of the vehicle, Manjunath stated.

We are estimating the costs of the different brands of liquor. Seized truck was approximately worth Rs 25 lakh. Excise sleuths led by Superintendent Vijaykumar Hiremath and team successfully seized the stocks, he said.