By Md Ilyas
Copyright deccanchronicle
VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has directed officials to take stern action to check the manufacture and sale of spurious liquor in the state.Chairing a high-level meeting with ministers and top officials, he said no illicit liquor brewing centre or individual involved in such activities should be operating anywhere across AP. Naidu asked the excise, enforcement and police departments to work in tandem and rid the state of the menace. He claimed that strict measures in the past 15 months had helped curb the inflow of non-duty-paid liquor from other states. A similar vigilance, he said, is required to stamp out hooch sale. Officials briefed the CM on the crackdown in Annamayya district, particularly the Mulakalacheruvu case in which 21 accused have been identified, with 12 arrests made so far. The names of some Telugu Desam associates also surfaced in the investigations. Investigations revealed that key accused Addepalli Janardhan Rao, operating the ANR Bar & Restaurant in Ibrahimpatnam, had been in the liquor business for 15 years and engaged in illegal manufacturing with his brother Addepalli Jagan Mohan Rao. The raids uncovered a concealed stock behind a grocery store and liquor bottles with fake names. In Ibrahimpatnam, three arrests have been made, while four suspects are under PT warrant interrogation. Naidu directed that every death allegedly linked to spurious liquor should be scientifically investigated. He warned that political parties, particularly YSRC leaders, were spreading deliberate “misinformation” to instill fear, falsely claiming that one in every three bottles in circulation in the state now was spurious. The CM advised his ministers to actively counter such campaigns. “Do not allow false campaigns to go unchallenged—whether in media or social media. If they claim deaths are due to spurious liquor, demand proof. If found false, take legal action,” he said. Ministers Kollu Ravindra and Nara Lokesh, along with other ministers via video conference, participated in the meeting. They were asked by the CM to expose past instances of “political drama” by the YSRC, such as the one related to the 2019 Viveka murder case.