Excise Dept seals 10 liquor shops

PUNE: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, officials of the State Excise Department on Thursday sealed around 10 liquor shops in Koregaon gram panchayat area of Ranjangaon MIDC. The decision was taken to maintain law and order during the election period. 

As per officials of the Excise Department, there was a clash between the owner of a liquor shop and locals. The locals of Ranjangaon MIDC ransacked the liquor shop and the case was reported to Ranjangaon MIDC police. 

Following the incident, the State Excise Department took a call to temporarily shut down the liquor shops. “There are chances of liquor distribution during the election. There can be law and order issues and so the decision was taken. The district collector has approved the request to shut down the liquor shops till May 25,” the official from Excise Department said.

The decision was taken under section 142 of the Bombay Prohibition Act which states, “If the Collector is of opinion that it is in the interest of public peace to close any place in which any intoxicant or hemp is sold, it shall be lawful for the Collector by an order in writing to the person holding a licence for the sale of such intoxicant or hemp to require him to close such place at such time or for such period as may be specified in the order. If a riot or unlawful assembly is imminent or takes place, it shall be lawful for any Executive Magistrate or Police officer who is present to direct that such place shall be closed and kept closed for such period as he thinks fit and in the absence of any Executive Magistrate or Police officer, the person referred to in sub-section (1) shall himself close such place.’’