A car carrying sealed bottles of country liquor and beer was seized at Nonadanga off the Bypass on Friday afternoon and two men were arrested, police said.

The car was intercepted in front of a club on Nonadanga Road, in the Anandapur police station area, around 4.40pm. There were 23 bottles of country liquor and 22 bottles of beer in the car, the police said.

There has been a demand for liquor across the state ever since the Centre announced a 21-day lockdown to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

During this period, sale or transport of anything that is non-essential is prohibited, the police said. “Based on specific information, we intercepted the car and arrested Bijay Sardar, 30, a resident of the Basanti area, and Subodh Haldar, 40, of Naskarhat in Anandapur,” an officer in the east division said.

Apart from the bottles and the vehicle, the mobile phones found on Sardar and Haldar have been seized.

The two have been booked for violating the lockdown and under the West Bengal excise act.

Earlier this week, the excise department's Calcutta (south) wing had seized 200 bottles of foreign liquor from inside a spa in the Ballygunge area.