The Uttar Pradesh government suspended two excise officers for dereliction of duty while an illegal liquor factory each was unearthed in Jaunpur and Chandauli.
The first to face the axe was district excise officer of Pilibhit, Chandrakant Singh, who was charged with managing liquor shops in violation of rules.
Also, district excise officer of Jhansi, Ram Ganga, was suspended on charges of failing to curb activities of an inter-state gang transporting illicit liquor.
Principal Secretary (Excise) Sanjay R Bhoosreddy said that complaints were being received for a long time against the district excise officer of Pilibhit for not managing liquor shops properly.
The district excise officer neither got press release published nor did he take permission from the licensing authority and Excise Commissioner regarding liquor shops run on a daily basis in 2019-20.
“Besides, during an inspection by district magistrate, the managing of country-made liquor shops was found irregular and against relevant rules,” he said.
Bhoosreddy said district excise officer of Jhansi, Ganga Ram, was found guilty of opening excise shops outside prescribed boundary limits. He said the officer was also found guilty in a case in which the police nabbed an inter-state gang involved in manufacture, sale and transport of illicit liquor.
Meanwhile, an enforcement team of Excise department unearthed a factory manufacturing illicit liquor and recovered equipment and adulteration material in Jaunpur and Chandauli districts.
Cases were registered against the accused under relevant sections of the Excise Act.
A joint team of excise and police unearthed a factory producing illicit sprit in Jaunpur and recovered 360 litres of rectified sprit in six jerry cans of 60 litre each, 300 litres of illicit liquor in 15 boxes, 4,800 empty bottles, 1,500 caps, 180 labels of Windsor No. 1 brand to paste on quarter bottles of country made liquor, 20,000 revenue security QR codes and 800 ml of caramel.
Besides, a joint excise team recovered 90 bottles of illicit liquor in Chandauli.
