Hyderabad: The director of excise and prohibition department, Mr Akun Sabharwal, said on Thursday that STF teams raided six places in the city and arrested two customs officials for diverting foreign liquor from the duty-free shop at RGIA. The STF teams seized 266 liquor bottles worth Rs 15 lakh.
Mr Sabharwal said that based on information received by excise constable K. Janardhan Reddy, the assistant commissioner of STF K. Pavan Kumar set up six teams. “We raided the residences of customs and GMR officials and seized 266 bottles of foreign liquor. We are interrogating six more customs officials. The customs officials grab the passports of passengers and draw liquor from the duty-free shop,” he said.
Mr Sabharwal said that STF teams had also seized bills for the 266 bottles with passengers’ names. “We identified the king-pin. The racket operates by selling duty-free liquor at prices lesser than market price. We can't reveal the names of arrested customs officials. The raids were conducted between 12 pm and 1 am on Wednesday. On Thursday the suspects shifted the foreign liquor,” he said.
He said that a case was registered against two customs' officials under section 34(a) of the AP Excise Act.
