Raids on Excise Department continue

HYDERABAD: For second consecutive day, the officials of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) continued raids on offices of excise deputy commissioners and excise superintendents in districts of Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, Nalgonda, Warangal and others which were spared on Monday. They seized some crucial documents regarding the issuing of liquor trade licenses during 2010, as part of their investigation into the nexus between department officials and liquor syndicates members.According to sources, the officials were looking for information of liquor licence holders and their socio-economic status. They sought to know whether the licences were obtained at lower prices by forming cartels. The officials suspect irregularities in the grant of licences through auctions in June 2010.Some relevant records were seized and sent to Hyderabad for examination. In Chittoor district, they made a surprise check of a liquor shop at Pakala, but found that liquor was being sold at MRP rates only.The ACB sleuths conducted raids on the offices of the excise superintendents in Palasa and Tekkali in Srikakulam; Maddilapalem (Vizag), Anakapalle and Gajuwaka in Visakhapatnam district; Saroornagar, Medchal, Rajendranagar in RR district; Nalgonda and Miryalaguda in Nalgonda; Mahbubabad in Warangal; Machilipatnam and Vijayawada in Krishna; Ongole and Markapuram in Prakasam; Chittoor and Tirupati in Chittoor and Anantapur district.Raids were also conducted on the excise zonal office in Vijayawada, deputy commissioner’s office in Srikakulam and excise assistant commissioner’s office in Tirupati.