Madhya Pradesh's Illicit Liquor Smuggling Meets Gujarat's Alcohol Demand For Decades: Report
Madhya Pradesh: A recent investigative report has disclosed that lakhs of liters of illicit liquor have been flowing to Gujarat from the neighbouring Madhya Pradesh for decades. The story published by The Reporters’ Collective showed a brazen group of overproducing distillers and liquor contractors working behind the dark smuggling network of the liquor.
The report pointed out the smuggling was facilitated with the support of excise and police officials, and tribes people in the villages where the alcohols were stored. The roots of the business of the organised alcohol smuggling was found to be in Madhya Pradesh’s Malwa region. With a huge outflow of the liquor from the region, it has been meeting the alcohol demand of Gujarat for over past 30 years.
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It was when the Gujarat government banned alcohol that led to the creation of a black market, paving the way for smugglers from the nighbouring states including Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to open their illegal businesses. Madya Pradesh started making illegal manufacturing and sales of liquor in 1980s. However, the illicit business saw a huge boom since 2003 when the BJP was ruling both the state, notes the report.
Emerging as a hub of the illicit liquor manufacturing, Malwa, accommodating four out of state’s 11, producing over 43 % of the total spirit. The report explained that the team visited atthiwada, a mofussil town with 86% tribespeople in Madhya Pradesh’s Alirajpur district. The place has been one of the key gateway for the smuggling of liquor into the dry state.
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Many farmers and laboures are part of the illegal business, serving as lower-level agents of the larger network in Malwa region, and many of them joined the gang due to poverty while the alcohol business served as a fortune to them. The hilly forest of Katthiwada helps the network to perfectly cover their operation.
In the darkness of night, the workers load liquor boxes from a godown located near Katthiwada’s only government-licensed liquor shop. They then pack them to vehicles including Scorpios, Boleros, Thars, Wingers, ambulances, and SUV with Gujarat license plates. The routes that are being used for the smuggling runs on road built under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and other village or forest roads. The liquor’s warehouse were built on rented tribal land in the border villages, and the tribal families are paid Rs 15,000 a month or Rs 10-15 per box to use their fields or empty spaces for storage, the report said.
The report also cited ajdeepsinh N Zala, Superintendent of Police Dahod, Gujarat saying that liquor mostly enters Gujarat from rural areas of Madhya Pradesh. The report noted that Alirajpur district police claims they are on a constant hunt for illegal booze and have seized liquor from fields, warehouses and villages.
“Liquor shops are just a facade. The profit they make from smuggling liquor and beer to Gujarat is ten times higher than the profit they make from liquor shops,” The reporters’ collective quoted an excise department source.
Pointing out the state excise commissioner Abhijeet Agrawal’s statement that they have a robust presence across the state that is why 3.60 lakh cases were filed between April 2022 to 2023-24 (till December), the report highlighted that none of them were against big ig liquor contractors or distillers. However, the commissioner has stated that the department was coming up with a monitoring system called to observe the distilleries, breweries and bottling units.
