J&K liquor mafia shifts to inaccessible forest areas as police pressure mounts

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 13

As the sleuths of the Excise Department and the police personnel of Jammu and Kashmir intensify the campaign against illicit liquor mafia, bootleggers have shifted their venues from villages to the forest areas to dodge the authorities.

The Excise Department on Thursday, on specific information, conducted raids in the forest area of Kathua and recovered huge quantity of ‘desi’ liquor and over 1,700 kilograms of ‘lahan’ used for producing the illicit liquor.

“It appears that the illicit liquor mafia has shifted venues from villages to remote areas, especially forests, to dodge the authorities,” Narinder Singh, head, Eradication Wing, Excise Department, told The Tribune.

He said it was difficult for the Eradication Wing to reach the spot owing to non-availability of road connectivity.

Before the Excise Department reached the spot, where the liquor mafia had installed the still, those involved in distilling the illicit liquor managed to run away owing to the topography of the area.

After the authorities intensified the campaign against illicit liquor, the mafia has moved their working stills to inaccessible areas to avoid action.

“One such working still was destroyed after a raid was conducted at the Upper Sakta Chak and the Gali Camp Barnoti areas of Kathua district to arrest the menace of the illicit distillation of liquor,” Singh said, adding that the material used for producing illicit liquor was highly hazardous and injurious to health.

Lahan is a yellow coloured viscose and a raw material used for producing illicit liquor. It has to be distilled on fire and contains ethyl alcohol. This illicit liquor is not safe to consume as toxic material used in it can prove fatal.

Notable after Punjab’s hooch tragedy, the Excise Department of J&K has constituted special teams to crack down on illicit liquor mafia in various parts of the Union Territory, especially in the Jammu province.