The Chittoor sub-division police in the early hours of Sunday conducted a cordon and search operation at Rasanapalle village in Gudipala mandal and the neighbouring forests bordering with Tamil Nadu, acting on information about making of illicit-liquor.
Deputy SP (Law and Order) N. Sudhakar Reddy and Circle-Inspector (Chittoor Rural West) C. Lakshmikanth Reddy led the operation with four special parties, consisting of 50 personnel from rural circle and armed reserve force. Rasanapalle village is known for ID liquor making activity, spread over a vast area of forest.
Offender escapes
The officials said that over 1,000 litres of fermented wash, ID liquor stocks ready for transportation, and related material along with sachet machines were seized in the forest location. A known offender, Chandrasekhar, had escaped from the spot on seeing the police, while a search party was pressed into action to track him.
They said after the arrest of several youth of the village, including booking of two notorious offenders under PD Act, the contraband activity had drastically come down in Rasanapalle since last year. In the past, the village had engineered mob attacks on the excise police four years ago, in which a circle-inspector and his staff were injured.
“Regular raids would be conducted at all suspect areas in order to completely root out the menace of ID liquor making. Apart from booking cases under AP Excise and Prohibition Act, we will not hesitate to invoke Preventive Detention(PD) Act against the repeat offenders,” the police officers said.