In a pre-dawn raid on the properties of a toddy shop licencee at Anakkappara near Vadakkanchery on Sunday, Excise teams seized 1,435 litres of spirit and 2,000 litres of fake toddy.
The raid was conducted following a tip-off. The Excise Enforcement squad and Excise officers from Alathur jointly raided the toddy godown owned by one Soman Nair at 5 a.m. His house was also raided.
Ten cans of spirit were recovered from under a cot in Nair’s house. Fake toddy mixed with spirit was found in cans outside the house. The Excise team seized 31 cans of spirit from a rubber sheet shed at Pandaramkode.
Seven workers were arrested. The Excise team also seized four vehicles used for transporting spirit and confiscated ₹11.65 lakh from them.
The Excise intelligence wing had found that Nair’s 30-odd toddy shops were selling spirit-mixed toddy. Officials said they could zero in on the culprit after watching his movements for several weeks.
The arrested are Vincent, 56, from Ettumanur; Baiju, 50, from Alathur; Chandran, 65, from Thrissur; Sasi, 46, from Kuzhalmannam; Sivasankaran, 50, from Chittur; Vasudevan, 59, from Vadakkanchery, and Parameswaran, 57, from Padur.
Apart from members of the Enforcement Squad, Excise Circle Inspectors K.V. Sadayakumar, Mohammed Riyas, and G. Krishnakumar, Inspectors T.R. Murukesh Kumar, K.V. Vinod Kumar, S. Madhusoodhan Nair, and C. Senthil Kumar were in the 28-member team.
