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Raja Peter inspects the country liquor bottling plant in Chas on Monday. Picture by Pankaj Singh
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Bokaro, Sept. 3: State excise minister Raja Peter has alleged that Bokaro district officials were in cahoots with the local mafia who were diluting country liquor sold in pouches with one operator alone cheating the state exchequer to the tune of Rs 75 lakh per month.
The minister who supervised a surprise raid yesterday on Messrs Bhattacharya , a country liquor bottling plant at Jodhadih (Chas) on Chandankyari highway, claimed to have detected the fraud which involved selling low weight pouches of country liquor that had been diluted by using low grade spirit.
The minister, who was carrying scientific equipment with him, claimed that instead of 200 ml, each pouch being sold by the bottling plant contained only 180 ml of country liquor.
Also, the liquor had been diluted by using 65.2-degree spirit instead of the regulation 60-degree.
Peter said that from one tank of spirit allotted by the excise department, 412,500 pouches of 200ml each could be made. Instead, the plant was churning out pouches with 20ml less in each pouch.
“The plant would, therefore, make 4,95,073 pouches. In one month it received 10 tankers of spirit, thereby earning Rs 75 lakh extra,” the minister alleged.
He said such fraudulent practices had become well-entrenched and could not have been pursued without the connivance of local excise and district officials. “I promise to take action against these corrupt officials,” he said.
But several excise officials countered Peter’s argument and claimed that Jharkhand did not have a single laboratory to test the minister’s claims.
“The minister should send samples to either Kumhrar (Patna) in Bihar or to Calcutta or Pune for tests. Let there be a CBI inquiry into the matter. Trace calls made to liquor manufacturers in Bokaro to establish the truth,” said an excise official who did not wish to be named.
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