Palakkad: Hawala money, unauthorised gold and foreign liquor are being brought to the state by passengers from Tamil Nadu through buses. This was revealed in an inspection conducted by the special excise squad in the state transport buses of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and private buses at BPL Koottupatha junction on Palakakd-Walayar route on Saturday.
The squad members, who conducted the vehicle check in buses coming via both Coimbatore and Pollachi route, seized Rs 30 lakh unaccounted money from M. Asharaf, a resident of Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu, which was being taken to Thrissur.
Also, 1.7 kg of gold without proper documents was seized from Vinod from Alathur and Biju from Thrissur. Similarly, 35 kg of gold was found with Vedamoorthy of Salem and Abdul of Thrissur. All of them told the squad that ornaments were being brought from Coimbatore to Thrissur.
They were later handed over to the central excise department for further inquiry. Ravi Kumar of Chennai, who was illegally carrying eight litres of foreign-made liquor, was also picked up during the vehicle check. He was taking the liquor bottles from Madurai to Thrissur. The raid was conducted as instructed by special squad circle inspector D. Sreekumar.
