Gujarat: Liquor valued at over Rs 41 lakh destroyed in Jamnagar

Jamnagar, May 28 (IANS) Authorities in Jamnagar district of Gujarat destroyed a massive cache of English liquor and beer valued at Rs 41.83 lakh, an official said on Wednesday.

The operation was carried out under tight security in the presence of top officials from the administration and police department. A total of 17,497 bottles of English liquor and beer were crushed using a bulldozer at a government-designated waste disposal site in a rural area near Jamnagar.

The liquor had been seized from multiple police jurisdictions, including Panchkoshi A. Division, Panchkoshi B. Division, and Kalavad Rural Police Station.

According to officials, 14,657 bottles were confiscated from the Panchkoshi A. Division Police Station area alone. An additional 2,292 bottles were seized under the Kalavad Rural Police Station, while 548 bottles came from the Panchkoshi B. Division jurisdiction.

The operation was supervised by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Jamnagar Rural, along with the Mamlatdar’s team, officials from the Narcotics Control Branch, and police personnel from the concerned divisions.

The coordinated effort highlights the administration’s continued vigilance and commitment to upholding the law in prohibited zones. Officials stated that further investigations are ongoing to trace the sources and networks behind the illegal liquor stockpile.

Despite Gujarat’s status as a dry state under its long-standing prohibition policy, the state continues to witness widespread and persistent violations related to the sale, storage, and consumption of alcohol.

In 2024 alone, authorities seized approximately 82 lakh bottles of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) across the state, with an estimated value of Rs 144 crore. This figure starkly illustrates the scale of the issue — the equivalent of one bottle being confiscated every four seconds.

Ahmedabad city was a major hotspot, reporting 2,139 cases involving over three lakh bottles of IMFL, in addition to nearly 8,000 cases involving country-made liquor totalling 1.58 lakh litres.

Comparatively, in 2023, Gujarat recorded 466 violations of prohibition laws, with alcohol worth around Rs 20 crore being seized, nearly doubling the value of confiscations from 2022, which saw 440 cases and Rs 10.4 crore worth of illicit liquor. These increasing numbers reflect not just heightened enforcement, but also the resilience and scale of underground liquor networks operating across the state.

--IANS

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