Marginal rise in liquor smuggling in border dists this Oct

New Delhi: As the Delhi government announced plans for its new Excise Policy with a transition period in October, there were apprehensions that illicit liquor smuggling might increase in light of shortages in stock being experienced here owing to private stores being shut temporarily.

However, according to data from Delhi Police, not much of the effect of this new Excise Policy was reflected in the smuggling data, according to which no specific rise in illicit liquor smuggling was noted this October.

In all of 2020, around 7 lakh illicit liquor bottles were seized and in 2019, around 7.85 lakh bottles were seized. This year, till October, 5.32 lakh bottles of illicit liquor have been seized.

From October 1 to November 16, all private liquor stores in Delhi are shut as government stores clear out their stocks before exiting the liquor business and leaving new swanky liquor stores to reopen from November 17.

But data from October shows about 43,000 bottles of liquor were seized this October in comparison to over 1 lakh last year and over 51,000 in 2019 October — indicating no specific rise in smuggling cases but in fact showing a downward trend.

However, according to data accessed by Millennium Post, there has been a marginal increase in smuggling cases in some bordering districts this October. The graph seems to be upward especially in Outernorth, Southeast and Southwest districts. In the Southeast district, the Delhi Police registered 40 cases and recovered 15,206 quarters, 888 half bottles of illicit liquor as well as 884 bottles of Beer which were procured from Faridabad of Haryana.

The city police also nabbed 43 bootleggers in these cases so far from the district. The official data shows that the number of cases of bootlegging had been less in both October 2019 and October 2020.

In the Southwest district, 14,318 quarters of illegally procured liquor was recovered in 5 cars, 5 scooties, and 1 TSR in October last year, while in the last month police of the same district recovered 9,044 quarters, 2,734 beer bottles, 356 beer pints, 13 Cans the same was recovered from 2 Scooty, 2 Car and 1 TSR.

When it comes to the Outernorth district, data shows that the maximum recoveries have been made from the Bawana and Alipur areas, which are situated at the border of Haryana. The city police have recovered 11,540 quarters in October last year while 12,758 quarters in October in 2021.