A hotel owner was shot dead and three others critically wounded in a shooting at a hotel in Rajasthan's Churu district. Police suspect a rivalry between groups involved in the liquor trade as a possible motive. Former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has condemned the incident, citing a deterioration of law and order in the state.
Delhi Police arrested 40 people and apprehended a juvenile in Rohini during an overnight drive targeting organised and street crime, seizing illegal arms, narcotics, and illicit liquor.
Haryana Police launched 'Operation Aakraman-21' across the state, resulting in numerous arrests and seizures of drugs, illicit liquor, and illegal arms.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has uncovered "multiple irregularities" in the operations of TASMAC, the state-run monopoly controlling liquor trade in Tamil Nadu. The agency found evidence of "manipulation" in tender processes and "unaccounted" cash transactions worth Rs 1,000 crore through distillery companies. The ED alleges that these irregularities involved "kickbacks" to secure increased supply orders from TASMAC and systematic inflation of expenses by distillery companies to siphon off unaccounted cash.
Voters are weighing a stark trade-off -- between preserving a socially driven policy and reversing course to revive revenue, restore fiscal balance, and rein in the underground liquor economy.
'If somebody wants to finish the country and more particularly from the border state, they will start with the borders. Every extra caution should be taken to save the country. Tell your government to be very serious. They have to take every effort to save the country, it is very easy to ruin the youth'
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As the election nears, political positions on prohibition are shifting.
'Women in crime can turn on and off emotions like a tap.' 'Something that comes in the way of their goals can be eliminated without a second thought.'
The latest move removes one of the key friction points for visitors, temporary liquor permits, while allowing licensed hotels and restaurants operational flexibility.
'This Budget has a one-year agenda, which you can call the sprint, and the marathon is towards Viksit Bharat.'
Budget 2026 sticks to fiscal discipline, shuns populist measures despite five key state elections coming up, but ends up rattling stock markets with a higher transaction tax on derivatives trading.
He suggested that those engaged in liquor and meat trade may take up selling milk in order to revive the glory of Mathura, that was known for producing huge quantity of animal milk.
The new excise policy, introduced in Delhi in November 2021, made sweeping changes to the city's liquor trade.
Andhra Pradesh, once a model state with total prohibition, has witnessed a tremendous increase in the consumption of liquor. In spite of a growing movement against small liquor shops in the rural areas, 60,000 people have filed tender applications for the 6,800 retail liquor shops in the state, aiming to cash in on the lucrative business.Twelve years after total prohibition was lifted by the then Chandrababu Naidu government, Andhra Pradesh is one of the largest consumers.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) faced criticism from the Supreme Court for filing a "half-baked" reply in a bail matter related to the Chhattisgarh liquor scam. The court expressed dissatisfaction with the situation, questioning the accountability of the ED and its advocate-on-record. The ED's additional solicitor general, S.V. Raju, attributed the error to a miscommunication and assured the court that a departmental inquiry would be initiated.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at multiple locations in Tamil Nadu on Thursday as part of a money laundering probe linked to alleged irregularities in the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC), including the purported role of its minister Senthil Balaji. The raids covered the offices of TASMAC, its employees, corporate offices of distilleries and plants, as well as "key associates" linked to Balaji, but not the minister's premises. The ED is looking into liquor sale transactions and the role of alleged middlemen in connection with TASMAC. Balaji, the minister for electricity, is also in charge of TASMAC, which holds a monopoly over liquor trade in the state. The agency is also investigating Balaji's role in an earlier money laundering case linked to the "cash for jobs scam" in the state transport department. He was arrested in that case but is currently out on bail.
Delhi police arrest 13 individuals, including minors, for the murder and sexual assault of a 14-year-old boy, allegedly in retaliation for informing on a rival gang member.
Five years after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar imposed total prohibition in Bihar, the liquor mafia continues to thrive, reports MI Khan.
Police said they have made five arrests in the incident. Those arrested have been identified as Prabhjit Singh, the main accused, Kulbir Singh, Sahib Singh, Gurjant Singh and Ninder Kaur, they said.
Four times more liquor has been seized in the 2024 election than during the 2019 polls.
A total of nine premises in the state's capital Ranchi and Jamshedpur are being raided in an operation that started early morning. A security team of the CRPF is assisting the I-T sleuths, the sources said.
The legal battle over the alleged infringement of trademark of whisky brands witnessed an unusual sight in the Supreme Court as liquor bottles were placed before the country's highest court.
So far, the maximum 83 deaths have taken place in Tarn Taran district, followed by 14 in Batala and 13 in Amritsar. The tragedy has been unfolding since Wednesday evening in the three districts.
Stocks of alcoholic beverage makers have corrected over the last few trading sessions on worries that taxes, competition and costs will hurt sales and profitability. The recent trigger for the decline is Karnataka, which accounts for 15 per cent of overall liquor consumption, increasing duties. The state increased by 20 per cent the additional excise duty on Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) on all slabs.
'We have to be prepared for the larger disruption that is likely to take place.'
The ED said its investigation also revealed that from 2019 to 2022, the sale of 'unaccounted illicit' liquor was almost 30-40 per cent of the total liquor sale in the state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday slammed the Aam Aadmi Party as an 'aapda' (disaster) for Delhi, saying this 'aapda' had taken the national capital in its grip in the past 10 years.
The ED case of money laundering in the excise policy stems from a CBI FIR in which Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and some bureaucrats have been named as accused. The excise policy has been rolled back now.
The Kerala cabinet on Wednesday ratified the new liquor policy of the Congress-led United Democratic Front government, which envisaged to shut down bars attached to hotels below the five-star category as part of its plans to reduce availability of liquor.
'Reduce your equity allocation, put that allocation into gold and fixed income.'
Prohibition is resulting in prisons getting overcrowded.
Don't create an "atmosphere of fear", the Supreme Court Tuesday told the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after the Chhattisgarh government alleged the probe agency is "running amok" and is trying to implicate Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Rs 2,000 crore liquor scam in the state.
Empty bottles of liquor were discovered inside the premises of the legislature in dry Bihar, in a fresh embarrassment to the Nitish Kumar government in the state, which has been drawing flak over recent hooch tragedies that have claimed more than 40 lives.
The income-tax department continued its searches in different places linked to an Odisha-based distillery group on charges of tax evasion for the sixth consecutive day on Monday after recovering unaccounted cash to the tune of Rs 353 crore, the 'highest-ever' haul in a single action by any probe agency in the country, officials said.
Eighteen more people lost their lives after allegedly consuming illicit liquor in dry Bihar's Siwan and Saran districts, taking the toll in the tragedy to 24, officials said on Thursday.
As the raids were completed, the I-T team took two managers of the distillery located at Sutapada to an unknown location for interrogation, they said.
The state government has introduced a new, more prohibition stringent law
The Bihar police will soon put to use Artificial intelligence technology to nab people involved in illegal liquor trade and other crimes, a senior police officer said on Friday.
The Nitish Kumar-led government prohibited liquor in the state on April 5 this year, making it the fourth dry state in the country after Gujarat, Kerala and Nagaland.
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