Cuttack, Oct. 1: Police have conducted special drives against illegal sale of liquor in the city over the past week and succeeded in seizing thousands of bottles of Indian-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and country liquor.

The cops have registered cases at seven police stations and arrested 11 persons.

The police said a special squad conducted the drives to keep check on the illegal sale of IMFL and country liquor in the city, especially during Dussehra.

The raids since September 27 revealed a number of joints were running illegal business in areas under Cantonment, Manglabag, Dargha Bazar, Badambadi, Bidanasi, Malgodown and Madhupatna police stations.

'Over 2,000 bottles of IMFL and country liquor were seized in 48 hours,' deputy commissioner of police (DCP), Cuttack, Akhileswar Singh said.

Official sources said 1,468 bottles had been seized in Cantonment police station area and another 480 from Manglabag. Two accused persons - K. Raju and Raju Mohanty - were arrested in the two cases, respectively.

The nine others arrested by the officials of various police stations are M. Ramu and Bharat Behera (Dargha Bazar), Chagala Behera and Muna Mukhi (Badambadi), J. Rama (Bidanasi), Banty Behera, Niranjan Samantaray and Narayan Behera (Malgodown) and Ganeswar Sahoo (Madhupatna).

'During the special drive since September 27, 11 persons have been arrested and 1,858 bottles of IMFL and 327 bottles of country liquor seized,' an official release said.

In addition to the special drives to ensure crackdown on illegal sale of liquor, night patrolling by the special squad tried to ensure that liquor was not sold beyond the stipulated time. The police are keen to ensure the authorised liquor shops do not remain open after 10.30pm, the stipulated time for closure as part of a crime prevention measure.

Telenga Bazar resident Pradip Sahoo said: 'The special drives should be continue to root out the illegal sale of liquor.'

Badambadi resident Prafulla Mohanty said: 'Late night sale at authorised liquor shops should be stopped.'

On September 23, the police had conducted excise raids and seized 18 litres of country liquor bottles and 22.98 litres of IMFL bottles from the possession of five accused persons and registered cases against them in Jagatpur, Malgodown, Cuttack Sadar, Badambadi and Barang police stations.