Liquor busted in Gujarat (img: Freepik)

‘Dry state’ Gujarat sees liquor smuggled into it every year through neighbouring states, valued at no less than crores of rupees.

As several cases of local police’s involvement in the liquor rackets surfaced, the State Monitoring Cell (SMC) has taken over the authoritative action against the violations of the prohibition law in Gujarat.

SMC’s data revealed that the monitoring cell registered a total of 466 offences related to prohibition and seized illegal liquor worth around ₹20 cr, along with goods approximately worth ₹40 cr. These numbers have nearly doubled as compared to those of 2022.

Liquor prohibition cases in 2022 & 2023

Most of this liquor was seized between May and December.

A new modus operandi was experimented with by the bootleggers to evade the police and smuggle liquor into Gujarat. Several cases emerged of gas and acid containers being used to supply liquor bottles.

Gambling cases busted by SMC

Apart from liquor, several gambling rackets were also busted by the SMC in 2023.

141 cases of gambling were registered in the year, in which ₹75 lakh were confiscated in cash while goods worth ₹3.5 cr were held.

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