Dry Gujarat: NDRF team dives into canal to find stolen 'mudda-maal' liquor bottles

Recently Gujarat police brought a team of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) to dive into the canal and find the liquor bottles dumped inside. After they failed in their attempt, a team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was called in on Saturday (May 23) with their deep-diving sets. It worked and the divers finally found dozens of liquor bottles from the depth of the canal which are said to have been "stolen from a police station and dumped in the canal in the apprehension of being caught."

The mysterious discovery of liquor, which is prohibited in the state in the name of Mahatma Gandhi, in Mehsana district, north Gujarat, has left the police department red-faced as it is alleged that the dumped liquor was part of a "mudda-maal" or seized articles. Although police are investigating this mysterious case, it is believed that liquor was dumped by unknown persons from Kadi police station's mudda-maal room.

"We had brought NDRF team today which has found some liquor bottles from the canal. The search operation is on. All I can say at the moment that the Directorate General of Police (Shivanand Jha) ordered me to inquire into this case some two days ago. We are trying to find out what exactly happened," said Inspector General of Police, Gandhinagar Range, Mayanksinh Chavda.

NDRF team retrieved stolen liquor bottles dumped in the canal

On Friday (May 22), when the police started an inquiry, being conducted by Gandhinagar Superintendent of Police Mayur Chavda, several empty boxes of liquor crates and bottles were found from the bushes near the canal. When asked about the details, Chavda refused to divulge information and said that "inquiry is on." He also confirmed that liquor bottles have been found and are being counted.

Mehsana Superintendent of Police, Manish Singh, told DH, "I and IG sir (Chavda) found that there was some foul play of liquor going on at the police station. I can't say what exactly it is. So, I asked IG sir for an inquiry by some other officer outside the district."

Another senior officer told DH, "We have found that Kadi police have not destroyed seized liquor, as per the prohibition policy, in the past four to five years whose value runs in crores.

As far as I remember, we seized nearly Rs1.5 crore worth liquor in the past two years alone. There is hardly any storage facilities and condition is the same across the police stations in the state. We have also found that local administration (collector office) has been delaying the request of sending its officers to do the formality of destroying the seized liquor as per the anti-liquor policy." Under the prohibition policy, seized liquor is mostly bulldozed every year after they are exhibited in the court as records.