Illegal liquor sales: Shop owners make quick buck during lockdown

Illegal liquor sales are thriving during the lockdown in Tumakuru district. Liquor worth Rs 100 is being sold for Rs 600 - Rs 700 and brands worth Rs 1,000 for as high as Rs 7,000. Liquor shop owners have made three times the profit that they usually make in a month by selling liquor on the sly.

Though the District In-Charge Minister J C Madhuswamy has cautioned liquor sellers that stringent action will be taken if irregularities are found in the stock register, people question if that has stopped shop owners from selling liquor from the backdoor.

Meanwhile, many liquor outlets have been 'burgled' in Hebbur, Bedathur, Kora and other places recently. Authorities suspect that the owners themselves have broken open the locks and shifted the stock somewhere else to sell in the black market and claimed that they were 'burglaries'. As many as 53 illegal liquor sale cases have been booked in the district since the lockdown was announced.

Deputy Director of Excise Nagaraj said that checking of liquor stocks in stores has begun in the district from May 2. The licences of seven shops have also been cancelled. Others have been raided and their stocks seized.