Vadodara: On May 9, the Vadodara special operations group (SOG) intercepted a truck in the city after it received information that liquor was being ferried in it. When the cops inspected the truck, they were stumped. For, the accused had prepared a special hydraulic system to hide liquor boxes in the rear side of the truck.
The accused had developed a technique wherein the hidden compartment in the truck would open up and surface by pulling a chain. Since Gujarat government made the prohibition laws more stringent last year, bootleggers are resorting to new tricks for ferrying liquor in the state. “They are developing new techniques. The vehicles are being modified in different ways to hide the liquor cartons,” prevention of crime branch (PCB) police inspector H M Vyas said.
A fortnight ago, the city police had nabbed three persons when they were trying to ferry liquor bottles in water jugs in Warasia area. The cops seized 1,200 beer cans placed in a number of 20-litre capacity jugs. “We had intercepted two trucks last year and arrested the bootleggers when they were trying to ferry liquor by hiding them in wheat flour sacks in the city,” Vyas said.
A bootlegger in Chhota Udepur had tried to fox the cops by hiding the liquor bottles in the seat of his motorbike in March this year. The police arrested him on the basis of a tip-off and tore open the seat and seized 88 quarter-sized bottles.
On May 8, three persons were arrested for ferrying liquor worth Rs 26,000 in a school van by the Panchmahal police. The bootleggers had even tried to use nylon sacks that are used for packing grains to ferry the liquor. The Godhra police had arrested five persons and seized 2,100 bottles of IMFL from the sacks.
The bootleggers are even using the water route to hoodwink the cops. The Vadodara range police seized liquor stock of Rs 1 lakh that was being smuggled by a boat in river Narmada in Kawant. “We can’t check every vehicle on the highways so we have to rely on specific information to nab bootleggers who use different tricks to ferry liquor,” a Vadodara rural police official said.
He added that they have also encountered instances where the bootleggers make a small compartment below gas kit or seats in a car to hide liquor bottles. “We know the common modus operandi of hiding liquor so they have to keep trying new techniques,” Vyas added.