Chinese engineer held for smuggling liquor in Kutch
By IANSWednesday, January 13, 2010
GANDHINAGAR - A Chinese engineer, employed at the site of a mega power project under construction in Kutch, has been arrested for smuggling Chinese-made liquor into prohibition-bound Gujarat, police said Wednesday.
Xu-Zsiyong, 30, was arrested Tuesday after a container load of Chinese liquor was seized by the police from a Chinese workers’ colony.
M.K. Rana, inspector of the Mundra police station in Kutch, Wednesday said the consignment included 10,000 bottles of beer, 45 bottles of whisky and 450 crates of other liquor.
The seizure was made from the Chinese colony in Sircha village of Mundra taluka Monday night. It is named a Chinese colony as the entire Chinese manpower employed at the power station under construction resides in a sort of a commune there.
The police raided the place on a tip-off and came across the huge quantity of liquor kept in two houses.
Preliminary investigations point out that the liquor was brought into Kutch from China for the consumption of the Chinese workforce deployed in the construction of the power station.
Sources said there is every reason to believe that the liquor was brought in a container which may have been offloaded at the nearby port, even escaping the customs’ vigil.
Liquor is prohibited in Gujarat and the consumption or possession of liquor within the geographical boundaries of the state without a valid permit is a non-bailable offence.
