The official claims that liquor smugglers were paying protection money to police to the tune of Rs 45 lakhs per week
NEW DELHI – The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Gujarat has been accused of patronising drug and liquor smuggling in Gujarat at a massive scale with active connivance of the state Home Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, the Chief Organiser of the Congress Seva Dal, Lalji Desai revealed that during the last four years from 2021 to 2024, drugs worth Rs 16,000 crores were seized in Gujarat. He said that the casual or conniving attitude of the government was evident from the fact that there had been no convictions in these cases.
Desai revealed that massive liquor smuggling was taking place in Gujarat, a state where prohibition is in force right since Independence. He said that large quantities of liquor were being smuggled in from Rajasthan and Maharashtra. He alleged that liquor smugglers were paying protection money to police to the tune of Rs 45 lakhs per week.
Exposing the nexus between the smugglers and the police, Desai disclosed that those smuggling liquor have to pay different rates depending on the size of the vehicles and their capacity. Once the vehicle owner pays the bribe at one place, he is issued a token which is accepted all over the state, he said, pointing out how organised is the smuggler-police nexus that bribe paid at one place is acknowledged across the state.
Desai further said that smugglers deliberately allowed a small number of liquor-laden vehicles to be seized while most of the vehicles carrying liquor were allowed to pass. This, he added, was to create an impression that the police were actively enforcing prohibition, while actually it was a cover up only.
Desai revealed that when Congress legislator Jignesh Mevani carried out ‘janta raids’ along with the public against the liquor smugglers and wanted to expose their nexus with the police, the Gujarat government sponsored protests by the families of the police personnel against Mevani. He said the home minister even assured support to the police telling them that they should not be bothered about the protests by anyone, including the Congress MLA.
The Seva Dal official also disclosed that maximum seizures of the drugs were made from the Mundra Port, which was operated by Adani Group. He asked why maximum drugs were arriving through that port only and why details about the senders of these consignments were not publicly known.
