Hyderabad: Liquor sales have shot up in Hyderabad and on the city’s outskirts even as police ordered owners of wine shops and bars to down shutters for three days in view of GHMC polls.
Wine shop owners are selling liquor in bulk to politicians, who allegedly use it to bribe the voters.Normally, the average liquor sale per day in the city is '10 crore. This has now increased to '15 crore per day for the last two weeks.Liquor sales crossed '250 crore in just 15 days, which is a record of sorts. Traders said all parties are making bulk purchases to meet election demand.
Sources say the aides of many candidates have made deals with owners of retail shops to move as many liquor bottles as possible to secret locations before prohibitory orders come into force on January
Cyberabad Special Operation Team (SOT) had on Thursday arrested 15 persons, including a wine shop owner, while they were shifting around 500 liquor bottles in a vehicle to a secret location.
Some politicians are also distributing special tokens to voters to buy free liquor.
“As per a tip-off we received, those possessing these tokens can go to wine shops and get liquor for free. This is the new kind of technique used for bribing voters,” said a police official. The cops have spread their net to catch some local politicians red-handed.
Hyderabad Police had issued orders for closure of wine shops, toddy shops, bars attached to restaurants and military canteen from 5 pm of January 31 to 5 pm of February 2, the day of polling; and from 6 am of February 5 till completion of counting of votes.
“The orders will be effective in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad to help keep peace and tranquility in the city,” said police commissioner M. Mahender Reddy.Police teams have also established vigil to stop smuggling of liquor across the city.
