SIT to track liquor mafia

HYDERABAD: A day after the Andhra Pradesh Wine Dealers Association had unanimously decided to surrender their licences to the government in the face of relentless raids by the Anti-corruption Bureau on liquor syndicates, the ACB on Friday set up a Special Investigation Team comprising senior officials to intensify the raids.K Srinivas Reddy, ACB additional director, confirmed that director-general D Boobathi Babu had constituted a SIT comprising senior officials. The moralities of the team are yet to be finalised. ACB officials obtained evidence that excise officials were involved in irregularities in liquor trade and formation of syndicates in violation of prohibition and excise rules.The SIT will closely monitor illegal activities by liquor syndicate organisers and will take appropriate action against them based on the confessional statements obtained from the accused who were arrested by ACB earlier. The ACB arrested eight excise officials, 11 syndicate members and 10 book-keepers in January. Officials say they have found that politicians, excise officials and journalists are recipients of the bribes.Meanwhile, the AP Wine Dealer Association reiterated its decision to surrender their licences. “We have information that the ACB has set up a SIT. We don’t know why it has set up such investigating team.We could not meet excise minister M Venkata Rama because he was busy attending the budget session. We will meet him soon and surrender our licences,’’ said D Venkateswara Rao, secretary of APWDA.