Spurious foreign liquor worth around Rs 20 lakh seized in Odisha’s Koraput

After a month-long operation, excise officials have seized a massive quantity of counterfeit foreign liquor in the Koraput district. The seizure took place in Bondaguda village under Kotapad police limits, official sources said on Monday.

Also Read: Fake foreign liquor worth Rs 77L seized in Odisha

Authorities recovered around 20,000 litres of the fake liquor from a manufacturing site, estimated to be worth approximately Rs 20 lakh. Two suspects connected to the allegedly illegal operation are still at large, and the Koraput Excise Department is pursuing leads to apprehend them soon.

Officials said the crackdown was part of ongoing efforts to curb the illegal production and circulation of spurious alcoholic beverages in the tribal-populated region, ensuring public safety and enforcing the law. Investigations into the source and distribution network of the counterfeit liquor are currently underway.

“We are quite serious in this regard, and you can see from our register that we have seized spurious liquor and registered cases at different times. Duplicate liquor is sporadically being manufactured by some people,” Jeypore Excise Inspector, Sashikanta Datta, said to OTV when contacted.

“We were tipped off that two brothers, namely Pankaj Gupta and Amit Gupta, are involved in the illegal trade. We are also probing into the involvement of any other link. Whoever will be found linked to the trade will be arrested,” the senior excise official stated.

“We have seized bottles with duplicate foreign liquors along with excise adhesive stickers, company labels, bottle caps, and several other items during the raid,” the official added.

Notably, it is being alleged that the bootleggers could manage to flee from the spot.