Excise officials unearth ‘liquor well’ in Palamu district

Daltonganj: Excise officials in Palamu have discovered an abandoned well where thousands of kilograms of mahua fruits were being fermented for making illicit brew, earning it a popular name of Sharab Kuan (well of liquor) ahead of New Year.
A 20-feet deep dry and abandoned well was found at Magardaha Tola of Bhawar village under Pathra police picket in Palamu by the excise team late on Tuesday afternoon. The illicit liquor makers had built a 3 feet concrete casting inside the well to act as a cemented floor for mahua fruits there to ferment with jaggery and lots of water.
Sources said the locals knew about this “sharab kuan” but none were ready to speak about it. The illicit liquor makers used to fetch fermented mahua with the help of a bucket and rope to take it out.
Excise superintendent Vimla Lakra said, “Our excise sub-inspector Sanjay Kumar and his team have estimated that there are nearly 8,000 to 9,000 kg of mahua fruits inside the well. “These mahua fruits were half fermented. This huge consignment was on the concrete floor inside the well,” said Lakra.
Excise sub-inspector Sanjay Kumar said, “The half-fermented mahua fruits were not in a position to be retrieved manually and supposed to be destroyed according to law.”
Kumar added that they poured in a bottle of concentrated phenyl into the well where the half-fermented mahua fruits were stored by the illicit liquor makers. “The phenyl destroys the fermentation completely,” he said.
Kumar said the well looks to be of irrigational purposes which over a period of time got wasted and now the illicit liquor makers were using it to brew liquor.
“The well belongs to a raiyyat who has gone into hiding. The well is located close to Bihar where there is prohibition in place.
Lakra said the excise teams have stepped up the drive against illicit liquor manufacturing units and bootleggers ahead of New Year. The adjoining districts of Bihar like Aurangabad, Rohtas, Gaya and others on the border of Jharkhand’s Palamu get consignments of illicit liquor from here.
Kumar said they are apprehensive that the brains behind the brew might try and destroy the evidence.