Gujarat government acts tough, but road to prohibition in state replete with tougher challenges

Much later in 2009, the “failure of prohibition law” was exposed when 156 people died due to spurious liquor in Ahmedabad. It again reminded the state government of its inability to control the menace.

Read | Easier for outsiders to get liquor than locals in Gujarat

Like in the past, this time, too, the state government amended The Bombay Prohibition Act 1949, and brought new laws, inserting “life imprisonment or death sentence” to those found guilty of manufacturing and selling spurious liquor. This made Gujarat the only state to do so in the entire country. But again, in 2016, hooch tragedy struck Vareli village in Palsana taluka of Surat and killed 21 people, mostly migrant textile workers.

Under pressure, the state government handed over the investigation to Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) which recently filed seven chargesheets under various sections, including under Section 65 (A) of the Bombay Prohibition (Gujarat Amendment) Act, which entails death penalty or life imprisonment on conviction against the accused.

The incident exposed a clear bootlegger-police nexus. Assistant Sub- inspector Prakash Patil was suspended under the Prevention of Corruption Act and on the suspicion of his links with bootleggers. He was also booked for amassing wealth to the tune of Rs 250 crore disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The state government transferred Surat Range IGP Narsimha Komar and Surat District Superintendent of Police Mayursinh Chawda, and brought in Shamsher Singh and Nirlipt Rai, respectively. Singh launched a campaign by exposing bootleggers on the Wanted list on the official Facebook page to deter the nexus.

Besides, Kadodara police inspector H K Bharwad was also suspended. Three other inspectors, three sub-inspectors and five head constables and constables were transferred too.

Surat Rural police had also booked six policemen – assistant sub-inspectors, head constables and police constables – at Palsana police station.

The ATS officials had lodged seven different complaints into the hooch case and, for the first time, invoked Section 65 (A) of the Bombay Prohibition (Gujarat Amendment) Act – which stipulates maximum death penalty on conviction – against all the accused. Twelve have been arrested so far in the case.

The ATS found that methyl alcohol was used in making hooch by prime accused Ramu Yadav, who later sold it to local bootleggers in Surat district, especially at Vareli village in Kadodara taluka in Surat district. The ATS also found that the methyl alcohol was stolen by Yadav and his accomplice, Manoj Verma, from trucks transporting it from Mumbai to Bharuch.

The state government has been fighting liquor mafia since Gujarat was separated into an independent state from Maharashtra in 1960. In 1964, the central government, through a scheme, offered all state governments to compensate 50 per cent of their loss in the excise revenue for implementation of total prohibition. Maharashtra did not take the offer, like most other states. But Gujarat opted for it and retained “The Bombay Prohibition Act 1949”, which was in existence in the undivided Maharashtra.

Since 1964, the state government has amended the law six times – in 1964, 1978, 2003, 2005, 2009 and 2016. The new amendment proposes imprisonment up to 10 years for those involved in the sale and purchase of liquor and fine up to Rs 5 lakh.

“The liquor prohibition bucks the history. You cannot implement it 100 per cent. Stopping people from drinking is medieval,” said a top police officer, who has served in the prohibition department. Besides bringing new laws, he said, the state government also formed the state prohibition department with nearly 2,500 policemen, but it also failed.

With every tragedy, the respective governments appointed inquiry of commissions, headed by retired justices. After the hooch tragedy in Vadodara in 1989, the then state government had set up a commission, headed by justice (retired) A A Dave, who recommended that prohibition should be either abolished or some “suitable changes” must be made. Various other commissions also pointed out deep corruption in the police and other government department responsible for failure of prohibition laws.

In 2009, after Ahmedabad hooch tragedy, on a suo motu petition, the division bench of Gujarat High Court observed, “…in the light of the amending Act, stringent provisions have been made and in cases like hooch tragedies the accused could be sentenced even to death if found guilty. Such a punishment will definitely have a deterrent effect but, by itself, would not be sufficient to curb the menace of illegal and illicit trading of liquor in the state. For that the police machinery will have to gear up and see to it that stern steps are taken against all those who are responsible for illegal transportation or illicit transportation of liquor within the state of Gujarat.”

The order stated, “Although the court may issue various directions for implementation of the prohibition policy in letter and spirit, but it is the police machinery who should rise to the occasion and see to it that the provisions of the Bombay Prohibition Act are implemented strictly and effectively. The figures which we have noted above so far as the registration of cases under the Bombay Prohibition Act are concerned would indicate that the prohibition policy in the state has failed and the figures are really startling.”

The state government had placed statistics in the High Court, stating “Between 2005 and 30th June 2009, total 6,74,473 prohibition cases were registered and in all 6,99,314 persons were arrested. In all, 2,49,125 accused were convicted by the courts under the Bombay Prohibition Act during the above referred period. 37.8 lakh litres of country-made liquor worth Rs 7.73 crore and 95.97 lakh bottles of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) worth Rs 85.9 crore were seized.”

Between 2010 and 2016, liquor worth Rs 316 crore was seized from across the state – as per a reply to a question in the Gujarat assembly recently. Liquor worth Rs 211 crore was destroyed during the same period. And Surat topped in seizure of country-made liquor worth Rs 3.13 crore.

Last year, after Congress threatened to carry out raids at liquor dens, demanding strict implementation of prohibition law, following the launch of a campaign by OBC youth leader Alpesh Thakor, the state government started a drive in September. In the first 18 days, the Gujarat police seized liquor, both country-made and IMFL, worth Rs 8.86 crore.