The ransacked foreign liquor shop near Sum Hospital Square. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 5: About 200 women ransacked a liquor shop near Sum Hospital Square in Shampur area on the outskirts of the city today.

The local residents have been demanding relocation of the shop for the last 15 days. However, the owner of the shop didn’t take any action. So, around 10am today, the women reached the shop and ransacked it.

Though the owner had locked the shop apprehending any untoward incident, the women broke open the lock. They took out nearly 200 bottles of foreign liquor and set those on fire. The Khandagiri police reached the spot and brought the situation under control.

The local residents said that they were against the shop functioning in the area since it opened a fortnight ago. They alleged that many people visiting the shop used to create problems for them, especially school going girls in the locality.

“They used to pass abusive comments at the school going girls as the shop falls in the way of a high school nearby. Once they also created scene while a body was being taken to Puri for cremation,” said Mamina Muduli, a local resident.

The residents said they had asked the shop owner to relocate. “But despite that, the owner never took any step. As we had no other option, we decided to ransack the shop,” said another protester.

Excise officials said that the owner had obtained a license last year and had been operating the shop Malipada area before relocating to the present venue.

Bhubaneswar excise superintendent Harish Chandra Nayak said: “Residents ransacking licensed liquor shops is quite unfortunate. Apart from resulting in loss of revenue for the government, it will also encourage the sale of spurious liquor,” said Nayak.

In the last two years, this is the fifth such instance of local residents destroying liquor shops in the city.

On October 3, women of Basuaghai on the outskirts of the city ransacked a foreign liquor shop in their locality.

Before that, on January 3, around 100 women ransacked a licensed country liquor shop opposite Mancheswar police station.

Last year, on July 30, a group of women ransacked a licensed foreign liquor shop at Kharavela Nagar.

In another incident, on December 4, 2011, around 200 women ransacked two country liquor breweries at Mancheswar.