Cong leader Dalal demands judicial probe into 'liquor scam'

Senior Congress leader Karan Singh Dalal today alleged that a multi-crore liquor scam was going on in Haryana, causing huge loss of revenue to the exchequer and demanded a high-level judicial probe into it.
In a letter to Haryana Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki, the Congress MLA from Palwal alleged that "the political- departmental-liquor mafia nexus is causing loss of crores of rupees to the state exchequer...The government has suffered revenue loss of Rs 300 crore in the previous financial year."
After BJP came to power in Haryana in October last year, several raids were conducted in Gurgaon and Faridabad to check liquor mafia, Dalal said addressing a news conference here.

He said on inspections of various liquor licensees' premises, it came to light that thousands of bottles of liquor were lifted from distilleries in excess of their quota without paying additional excise duty on it.
"At some premises, heavy shortage of liquor was also found, which means that licencees have evaded excise duty and sold the excess liquor in other states," Dalal alleged.
He further said that nominal penalty was imposed on licensees who violated the rule.

"The lesser amount of penalties imposed by the State's Excise and Taxation Department clearly reflect the non-observation of provisions of Excise policy and under the garb of discretion, the department is playing into the hands of liquor mafia for wrongful considerations," he said.

Dalal also claimed that the State Excise and Taxation Department failed to lodge FIR against those liquor contractors who lifted liquor more than their additional quota.
"Moreover, their licenses were also not cancelled," he said, alleging that rampant corruption was going on in the Department.
Dalal also cited several cases in which the Department had allegedly imposed lower amount of penalties.
Asked from where he had procured the information about the alleged scam, Dalal said, "I am basing my charge on the notices issued to the liquor contractors by the Department."
He also questioned why the raids had been limited to just Faridabad and Gurgaon.

"When such huge scam was discovered, the raids should have been extended to other parts of the State as well," he said.
Dalal demanded computerisation of issuance of permits to check the illegal practice.