Illicit Booze Biz Booms On High Demand

Ambulances, vegetable trucks, milk canisters used for supplies Cops on tail, some liquor shops in non-hotspot zones open today

- Ajay Kumar

On May 1, the Delhi Police arrested two men in Dwarka for smuggling hundreds of bottles of liquor in a vehicle laden with cucumber.

On April 16, two men were caught transporting 25 boxes of illicit liquor in an ambulance in Chhawla.

On April 5, a man was held near South Avenue Road with liquor bottles hidden inside milk containers. All these men had UP and Haryana connections.

The Delhi government is set to open at least 400 standalone liquor shops in non-hotspot areas on Monday when the third phase of the nationwide lockdown begins for two more weeks.

But the challenge also remains to crackdown against inter-state smugglers and city bootleggers spreading their network and exploiting demands that have been spiralling amid Covid-19 curbs.

On Saturday, Delhi’s Excise Department asked four government agencies to immediately submit a list of liquor shops which conform to the Union Home Ministry’s relaxation criteria for the next phase of the lockdown allowing some non-essential standalone outlets to open.

Of the 800 liquor shops in the Capital, 400 are state-run and 170 are located in malls. All these have remained closed since March 25 when the first phase of the lockdown came into effect.

THE CRACKDOWN

Rackets are trying different ways to smuggle liquor from other states into the National Capital. This, despite a heavy police presence on the roads.