Kerala Excise Bribery Racket Busted; 7 Officers Suspended

Kerala Excise Bribery Racket Busted; 7 Officers Suspended

Seven Kerala Excise officials, including Deputy Excise Commissioner, Kottayam S Asoka Kumar, have been suspended following an investigation into a bribery racket that used to collect cash, liquor, and other goodies from licensed bars.

Seeram Sambasiva Rao, the Excise Commissioner, has ordered the suspensions as per the instructions of Excise Minister M Liju. This Operation ‘BIJAPUR’ was launched by the department after receiving confidential complaints through WhatsApp detailing the systematic extorting of money and other benefits from bar owners.

The special squad operation had been conducted after receiving several anonymous complaints about bars especially at Changanassery-Kottayam region, for receiving money, liquor and other freebies from bar owners.

The Commissioner had set out in disguise and without protocol or escort from his office at one fine evening to conduct a physical check of bars under the shadow of darkness and was accompanied by intelligence officers of the headquarters including others for the inspection conducted on the night of August 28.

The team, to the shock of officials, found prima facie evidence that a “compliment system” that is for collecting funds from bar owners had been introduced for different levels of Excise officials.

During inspections, many bar registers and evidence collected also revealed some oral as well as voice and CCTV recordings that proved it. Rs 55,000 Found from bar owners Deputy Excise Commissioner Asoka Kumar allegedly delegated the work of extorting cash from the bar owners to Karinkkada Josy to avoid facing the bar owner for fear of being caught and intimidated.

The money collected was also reportedly used to pay off some of the officials.

The investigation carried out found from the text messages that around Rs 55,000 were collected by some.

The investigation revealed the evidence, including CCTV footage, voice and text messages and the bar records that the Deputy Excise Commissioner of Kottayam used to assign a person to collect money from the bar owners so that any violation or action would lead to harassment. Mobile phone deleted The Excise Commissioner has directed the investigation against Mr.

Asoka Kumar on whose mobile phone data was erased during its inspection. The investigation report mentioned that while the officials were in the process of analyzing the mobile phones, there was an act of remotely wiping and removing the data, and later Cyber police informed the department that the action occurred during the time of inspection. When asked for details, Mr.

Asoka Kumar agreed that it happened voluntarily as he had destroyed the evidence out of fear.

An oral confession of Collecting of money was made by the Deputy Excise Commissioner of Kottayam to senior officers. Officials suspended Seven officials are suspended: S. Asoka Kumar (Deputy Excise Commissioner, Kottayam), M. Manuel (Preventive Officer, Special Squad), Praveen Sivanand (Preventive Officer, Special Squad), Lalu Thankachan (Preventive Officer Grade, Special Squad), Santhosh T (Preventive Officer Grade, Special Squad), Shiju K (Preventive Officer Grade, Special Squad) and Visakh AS (Civil Excise Officer, Changanassery).

Adarsh GL, Excise Range Inspector, Changanassery has been issued a minor penalty proceedings against them as serious lapses in supervision has been found.

The departmental records like CCTV footages and recorded voices, mobile text messages and transaction proofs have been retained by the department as evidence to build its case against the officials. A detailed inquiry is underway to ascertain the complete scope of the alleged racket and the individual roles of the officials in question.