Officials of the Excise Department have launched an extensive drive to curb the sale of illegal and duplicate liquor in Yadgir district.
In an incident in which the authority of the officials was challenged by bootleggers, a group of around 40 people attacked officials and other personnel and managed to get a person released who was in their custody last week.
Although the officials managed to seized the consignment of duplicate liquor stored in a small house on the outskirts of Chandapur-Hallolli village worth ₹12.32 lakh, they could not prevent the mob from gaining the upper hand as they were unarmed.
Two officers suffered minor injuries in the incident and a complaint was registered in Gogi police station against 40 people, of which only two have been arrested so far.
Just a week before the officials had conducted a raid on Laxmi wines in Shahapur and seized duplicate liquor worth over ₹21 lakh and arrested two persons.
Deputy Commissioner of Excise Motilal said: “We have taken strong action and continued raids on storages of duplicate liquors in a village of Jewargi taluk in a joint operation and lodged a complaint in Jewargi range”.
Indicating that the raids would continue further, he also said that information on persons involved in illegal activities was being collected.
