Gujarat Police reveals that more than 2.5 lakh people from different parts of the state, were arrested in the last 1.5 years under the Prohibition Act for the production /smuggling /sale or consumption /possession of illicit liquor.
This comes in the light of the recent hooch tragedy which cost at least 42 casualties in the villages of Ahmedabad and Botad. The state government has denoted the deaths as due to chemical poisoning and police have arrested 15 accused in the case so far.
In total, 2,52,071 people were arrested in the period of January 2021 to july 2022 in the state, says the statement released from the office of Gujarat Director General of Police (DGP) Ashish Bhatia. From those arrested, 1,99,622 people were held for country-made liquor cases and 52,k449 were arrested for being involved in Indian Made Foreign Liquor.
Adding everything, 2,54,203 FIRs were booked under the Prohibition Act of which 43,355 were for Indian Made Foreign Liquor and 2,10,848 were for country-made liquor cases.
The statement reads that ““From January 2021 to July 2022, we have seized illicit liquor and 18,658 vehicles involved in its smuggling, the total value of the seizure is Rs 273.86 crore. Additionally, among the cases lodged under the Prohibition Act, at least 28,100 cases were against listed bootleggers. We have also arrested 1,234 bootleggers under the Prevention of Anti-Social Activities (PASA) Act and banished (tadipaar) 749 other bootleggers,”
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report of ”Crime In India 2020″, Gujarat, among the other four dry states of India, was responsible for the highest number of prohibition cases. Bihar came second with 45, 235 cases while Mizoram stood at 251 and Nagaland at 229. The NCRB reports do not include arrests under Prohibition act, but put them under SSL (Special and State Laws). In 2020, 3,84,860 people were arrested in Gujarat under SLL crimes, of which a huge section was prohibition cases.
