Delhi Polls: Excise teams seize 20,000 illicit liquor bottles worth Rs 50 lakh

The Delhi government’s excise department has confiscated nearly 20,000 bottles of illicit liquor valued at Rs 50 lakh in the past two weeks since the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for the Assembly elections came into effect, officials revealed on Friday.

The total value of the seizures, including 15,376 litres of illicit alcohol (Indian-made foreign liquor or IMFL and country liquor) and 32 vehicles, is estimated to be Rs 1.5 crore, according to officials.

So far, 52 cases have been registered related to the seized liquor. The illicit liquor seized by the excise department accounts for about 25% of the total seizures, including those made by the Delhi Police, officials said.

Teams from the Excise Intelligence Bureau (EIB) have been working diligently to identify and intercept liquor being smuggled, primarily from neighbouring Haryana, said a senior excise department official.

Elections for Delhi’s 70-member Assembly are set for February 5, with vote counting scheduled for February 8. Both days have been declared “dry days” by the excise department.

The MCC has been in effect since January 7, following the announcement of the election dates.

On Thursday night, EIB teams intercepted two vehicles at Burari and Mahipalpur, seizing 5,000 bottles containing 3,600 litres of smuggled liquor worth Rs 12 lakh, the official said.

In the first operation, an excise team pursued a truck carrying 3,036 liquor bottles for 14 km after it entered Delhi through GT Karnal Road. The vehicle was intercepted in north Delhi’s Burari, leading to the seizure of 253 cases of liquor labelled “for sale in Haryana only,” officials said.

In another operation, a mini-truck was intercepted in Mahipalpur, and 151 cases containing 1,812 bottles of liquor (totalling 1,317 litres) were seized, the officials added.

Despite limited staff and resources, the department has intensified efforts to tackle the illicit liquor problem during election season, as per the directions of the Election Commission.

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“Since the MCC came into force, our teams have been registering three FIRs daily on average and confiscating around 1,000 litres of liquor every day during regular raids,” said the senior official.

The department has focused on rigorous patrolling and checks at inter-state borders, especially with Haryana. These border areas, often considered “dark spots,” typically lack liquor outlets, making them hotspots for smuggling, the official explained.

Additionally, the excise department has issued instructions to hotels, clubs, and bars against “coupon-based and mass bookings” in light of the elections. Inspections of bonded liquor warehouses and increased monitoring of CCTV footage have also been implemented to prevent malpractice, the officer noted.

(With inputs from PTI)