40 percent wine shops sell spurious liquor

IF you feel that your favourite brand of whiskey doesn’t taste genuine, you can simply walk into the Excise and Prohibition office to lodge a complaint.The department is keeping a check on adulterated liquor being sold in branded bottles across the twin cities.A number of liquor shops are allegedly into re-manufacturing various branded products, blending them with different intoxicating substances. These shops reportedly paid huge money in auction to supply spurious liquor.Reportedly, more than 40 per cent liquor shops in the twin cities and suburban localities are involved. So, the next time a waiter offers you a bottle of chilled beer at a dhaba, bar or restaurant, think twice before drinking it.Excise and Prohibition department officials confirmed that the illegal process of blending other substances into original brands and opening seals of branded bottles and re-manufacturing them was rampant. “Re-manufacturing branded liquor bottles and mixing local brands by liquor shops, licensed bars and restaurants is illegal under the Excise and Prohibition Act,” said PV Sunil Kumar, director, enforcement wing, Excise and Prohibition department.“Most of these branded liquor varieties fail to produce the actual effect as I used to have earlier. While a number of shops prefer to sell liquor in pegs, I end up drinking more to attain the desired state of euphoria,” pointed out N Vara Prasad, seated in a dhaba. Meanwhile, the department has caught a few persons involved in repackaging country-made liquor in bottles of foreign liquor brands. A large number of empty bottles with labels of popular brands like Johnnie Walker, Black Label, Chivas Regal, Absolut Vodka were seized. “We seized more than 500 spurious liquor bottles in December while raiding various places in the twin cities. Large amounts of counterfeit foreign liquor, chemicals, empty liquor bottles, caps, packaging material, stickers and dye for counterfeiting liquor bottles was recovered,” said the enforcement director.

By Mouli Mareedu

moulimareedu@gmail.com