Arrack smuggled from Pondy through river seized in Nagai

TIRUCHY: Nagapattinam Prohibition and Enforcement Wing police seized 1,000 litres of arrack sachets smuggled from Puducherry.

The smugglers swam through the water bodies to transport the arrack and police after seizing the arrack sachets destroyed them on Tuesday. The police are searching for the accused who escaped after abandoning the contrabands.

It is said, the Nagapattinam PEW team received information that the arrack sachets are smuggled from Puducherry in a novel way.

On Sunday night, a team led by the DSP Kennedy found a gang was smuggling large quantities of arrack in polythene covers and were transporting by swimming across Arasalar in Nagapattinam.

The gang tied a total of 74 bags containing arrack in a rope and were pulling them from one bank to the other during the night hours. Soon the police team rushed to the spot but the gang abandoned the smuggled arrack sachets and escaped in the cover of darkness.

Subsequently, the team collected the goods and took them to the Nagapattinam PEW office and found that it was around 1,000 litre arrack worth Rs 2 lakh.

The initial investigation found that the police have tightened the roads to prevent smuggling from the neighbouring Puducherry district and the offenders have been taking the novel way of transportation of their goods.

On Tuesday, SP G Jawahar inspected the seized goods and ordered the police to destroy them. Later, the arrack was spilled in a ditch and destroyed the entire goods. A search is on the gang who escaped.