CHENNAI: The Prohibition Enforcement Wing has arrested over one lakh persons, including 17,000 women, in 2011, on illicit liquor production and sale in the State and smuggling of IMFL.PEW officials said that illicit distilled arrack has been brought under control with intensive raids, and rehabilitation offered by the state government. The police have now turned their focus towards curbing the inflow of rectified spirit, which is largely transported from north India. In raids conducted over the past year, 47.01 lakh litres of illicit distilled arrack, 5.59 lakh litres of fermented wash, over 38,000 litres of toddy and 2.83 lakh litres of rectified spirit were seized. A total of 221 persons were held under Goondas Act. The government has also earned a revenue of Rs 1.96 crore through the auction of vehicles seized during the raids, officials told Express.The inflow of rectified spirit is engineered by kingpins in the State who transport the substance from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Officials said that bootleggers adopt ingenious ways to hoodwink the police. They transport rectified spirits in lorries in 35-litre white cans. Every time the lorry crosses a state border, the consignment is shifted to a new lorry. In a recent case, police said they intercepted spirit declared as shampoo. Chambers located behind the driver’s seat can store more than 200 white cans.“The kingpins here in TN, some involved in the business for more than a decade, do ‘deals’ only over phone. We have arrested some notorious persons in Poonamallee, T Nagar and Kanya Kumari last year,” said a police official.A major part of the process - mixing spirit to water in 1:4 proportion and adding colour to it - is done along the TN-Puducherry border. The ‘liquor’ is then filled up in bottles with fake labels of original brands and sold at Rs 10 to Rs 15 less than the original price.“After bottling in Puducherry, they have no choice but to sell in TN as original liquor itself is sold at a lesser rate in Puducherry,” said a police official.Tribals in illicit distilled arrack production.Unlike rectified spirit which requires a planned transportation process, illicit distilled arrack is produced in 20 identified pockets - considered black spots - in the State, including interior hilly regions like the Javvadu hills, Kalvarayan hills and Yelagiri hills. “Making illicit arrack is a crude process and takes at least five to six days for the end product, unlike rectified spirit. Most of the distilling is done near mountain streams and police can trace such places only through informants. Most of the raids are joint operations with Forest Department, Police and PEW officials, and it is permissible for police to destroy arrack, unlike rectified spirit that has to be handed over to the court,” a police official said.The arrack is sold in local villages in packets for Rs 15 to Rs 20 for 200 ml. “Out of the 32 districts in the state, only 16 districts have been identified as areas of illicit arrack production,” said CK Gandhirajan, ADGP, Prohibition Enforcement Wing, Tamil Nadu.
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