PONDA: A bid to smuggle liquor worth Rs 5.5 lakh to Andhra Pradesh was foiled after the truck driver was stopped for routine checking at the Goa-Karnataka border check post at Mollem early Wednesday morning. The officials noticed that the truck driver looked scared and this triggered suspicion over the nature of the goods in the truck
This is the second such incident in two months where an attempt to smuggle large quantities of liquor outside Goa has been foiled. A stock of liquor worth Rs 2.7 lakh was seized on December 10, 2020, while being smuggled to Karnataka.
On Wednesday, the excise team headed by sub-inspector Jitendra Adpoikar, intercepted the vehicle while it was attempting to cross the state border via the Mollem checkpost around 1.40am.
When officials at the checkpost began checking the goods, the driver ran away and disappeared into the surrounding forest taking advantage of the darkness and abandoned the truck, Dessai.
“We were lucky enough to have been able to intercept the truck. It would have given us the slip if the driver was not scared during routine border checking,” the officer said.
The excise team included Adpaikar, excise guards Sunil P Naik, Mahadev Gaonkar, Dashrath Gawas and Ashish Gaonkar, and assistant excise guard Deepak Prabhu Dessai. The seizure was carried out under supervision of the excise inspector Rohit Dessai, in charge of Sanguem Taluka.