Ahead of polls, dry Gujarat tightens vigil on liquor smuggling

August 31st, 2009 AHMEDABAD - The police detained at least seven women for selling illicit liquor known as hooch in local parlance that recently claimed three lives in Gujarat. Two breathed their last on Friday while one more person died on Saturday after consuming drinks laced with a chemical used in making perfumes.

July 28th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - Gujarat assembly on Tuesday introduced, Bombay Prohibition (Gujarat Amendment) Bill 2009, proposing stern punishment upto death penalty to deal with illicit liquor trade. The Bill was passed with a majority vote in the House.

July 17th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - The Crime Branch of the Gujarat Police arrested Vinod Dargi, the key accused in the Gujarat hooch tragedy, here on Friday. Police also arrested two other associates of Dargi, Ajay Thakkar and Sunil along with him.

July 15th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - The Gujarat government on Wednesday declared that it would soon bring a new law having a provision to punish dealers of spurious liquor with seven years in imprisonment to capital punishment. The State government has come into action following wide uproar over the death of 152 people in Ahmedabad due to drinking illegally brewed liquor.

July 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar Friday adjourned the house till 2 p.m. following the protests by Congress MPs from Gujarat, who raised the issue of the illicit liquor tragedy in Ahmedabad which has claimed at least 136 lives so far.

July 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Congress Party MPs today staged a protest against hooch tragedy in Gujarat that killed at least 130 people due to consumption of spurious liquor. Congress has alleged that a BJP Corporator of Mahemdabad Municipality was behind the hooch tragedy.

July 12th, 2009 AHMEDABAD J - The toll in the Ahmedabad hooch tragedy has risen to 127 following fourteen more deaths. According to police, 229 people are still admitted to various city hospitals.

July 11th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - Rejecting liquor baron Viajy Mallya's suggestion to rethink the state's prohibition policy, the Gujarat government said, that he should look at his liquor business and keep out of state's affairs. With the death toll of state's worst liquor tragedy nearing 130, Mallya, the owner of United Breweries, had said the enforcement of prohibition is becoming a mockery, which leads to illegal, unhygienic and unsupervised production of poisonous cocktails that claim innocent lives, and called the politicians to rethink over the prohibition policy in the interest of the people.

April 22nd, 2009 CHANDIGARH - Over 3,500 bottles of Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) were seized here Wednesday, while they were being smuggled into Punjab, police said. 'It was during our regular search drive in which we arrested Darshan Singh, a resident of Patiala while carrying 3,576 bottles of IMFL in his Tata-407.

April 21st, 2009 BHOPAL - Crackdown on illicit liquor and arms has been launched and weapon licences suspended to ensure free and fair polls in Madhya Pradesh where voting for 13 Lok Sabha constituencies will be held Thursday. Over 15,000 troopers of paramilitary Special Armed Force (SAF) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) will be deployed across the state during the polls, state police chief S.K.

April 10th, 2009 PANAJI - Wholesale and retail liquor outlets in Goa have downed their shutters in an indefinite strike to protest what they claim are 'harassing diktats' of the Election Commission. The liquor traders are protesting the increased vigil enforced on them by the state excise department, which is keen on clamping down on misuse of liquor to influence voters during the Lok Sabha polls.

March 31st, 2009 AMRITSAR - Illicit liquor brewers are getting ready to meet the increasing demand from politicians in Punjab for their products in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. Amanpreet, who is involved in making illicit liquor, said that the demand from politicians for country liquor is because of the higher prices of English liquor, which cannot be distributed, in huge numbers.

March 15th, 2009 PANAJI - The Goa government is tightening its vigil on the manufacture and trade of liquor to ensure that it is not misused by political parties to lure voters in the upcoming polls. The government's move to track down the liquor trail in the state comes on the heels of a massive seizure of Goa-manufactured alcohol in Karnataka last week.

March 10th, 2009 BANGALORE - Voting in the first of the two-phase Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka will take place six weeks from now but already liquor and saris are being stored to woo voters, an official indicated Monday. 'From several parts of Karnataka, we have seized liquor worth over Rs.290,000 meant for distribution among voters,' state chief electoral officer M.N.

January 1st, 2009 SHIMLA - Low levies on spirits in Chandigarh seem to be leading to increased smuggling of cheap liquor from there to neighbouring Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. R.D. Dhiman, Himachal Pradesh excise and taxation commissioner, said the levy on a bottle of liquor was Rs.100 in Punjab, Rs.89 in Haryana and Rs.88 in Himachal Pradesh, while it was just Rs.15 in Chandigarh.