Gujarat Hardlook | Police, smugglers in a battle of wits: ‘High’ route to dry state

“He would travel to Rajasthan and Maharashtra, purchase IMFL bottles, empty them into the modified tank and drive back to Vadodara. Once here, he would refill bottles and sell the liquor,” Tandel said. Police seized the vehicle and IMFL worth around Rs 4 lakh.

Two weeks later, the PCB landed another catch. On February 22, on a tip-off, the PCB raided the house of 45-year-old alleged bootlegger Hiteshkumar Jaiswal, in the VUDA apartments in the Kishanwadi area. The information was precise — several bottles of IMFL had been stashed away in a false ceiling of a room of the apartment that was being used as a ‘ladies beauty parlour’. When the officers began the search, pulling down the lights fixed in the gypsum sheets, it turned into a haul of 476 bottles of liquor worth Rs 3 lakh.

Tandel says, “Bootleggers continue to come up with innovative ways to smuggle liquor to the state… In this case, we had precise information and not just one but two rooms of the house were newly done with POP (plaster of paris) false ceilings and a space created behind the lights to stash away liquor… Jaiswal also has a previous history of being nabbed under the Prohibition Act.”

On February 16, Bharuch district police flagged down a truck on the National Expressway at Ankleshwar and on checking the carrier, found 33,636 IMFL bottles worth Rs. 2.06 crore hidden behind rice bags. The arrested truck driver, Jesaram Meghwal, told the police that he preferred the expressway “to avoid being checked by police on the regular highways”. He confessed to having brought liquor from Haryana to a client in Valsad.

On March 5, Surat Rural Local Crime Branch sleuths intercepted an Eicher tempo from the under-construction Expressway between Mumbai and Vadodara at Ena village in Palsana taluka of Surat district. On opening the vehicle’s closed body, the officials found 1,320 IMFL bottles worth Rs 19.80 lakh.

Police arrested the vehicle driver, Kojaram Jat, a resident of Rajasthan. He disclosed that the liquor consignment was loaded from Maharashtra and was on its way to be delivered to a person in Vadodara. “He told us that he drives only at night and prefers the Expressway,” LCB police inspector RB Bhatol tells The Indian Express.

On the same day the Vadodara PCB found the alcohol stashed in ceiling, the Vadodara district police’s Local Crime Branch (LCB) intercepted a container truck on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway at Lakshmipura village near Vadodara on a tip off that it was loaded with contraband liquor. But the police found nothing inside the container. The police arranged for a fabricator to find a concealed cabin towards the front of the container, sandwiched between two metal layers. When the fabricator cut open the metal partition, 16,620 bottles of IMFL worth Rs 94 lakh were found.

In December 2025, the Surat city police seized several plastic bottles labelled ‘engine oil’ from a shop in the Bhestan area, with the unusually huge stock drawing suspicion. The bottles were filled with 450 litres of IMFL.

Why Expressway as a smuggling route

The partially open sections of the 1355-kilometre Delhi-Mumbai Expressway — a part of the Bharatmala Pariyojana — have also become the roads frequently taken by bootleggers smuggling liquor into Gujarat through Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

The Dahod District police, who have been keeping vigil at the entry points of the state, have intercepted vehicles carrying alcohol worth nearly Rs 12 crore being smuggled into Gujarat through the Expressway since January this year. Of the total number of 52 cases — with seizure over Rs 2.5 lakh lodged in the state, 25 were through the Expressway.

Officials of the district said that 3,500 cases — including individuals booked under Prohibition Act — since January amounted to a total seizure of Rs 13.13 crore, including Rs 12 crore worth through the Expressway.

Police Inspector Sanjay Gameti of Dahod LCB told The Indian Express that 260 vehicles were seized and 2023 accused arrested between January 1 and March 6 this year. Gameti says, “We have observed many different types of modus operandi to smuggle liquor into the state… right from concealing it behind perishable goods to concealed compartments within containers and even tankers to hoodwink the police: the bootleggers have tried it all…” Gameti says that one of the biggest catches — of liquor worth around Rs 1.43 crore — came from a petroleum tanker that had warning of “flammable liquid inside”.

“We had a tip-off and we asked the driver to open the container. However, the opening was completely welded even as the driver continued to argue that it contained only chemicals… When a fabricator cut open the tanker’s lid, we found over 900 cartons of liquor, carrying about 10,000 bottles of alcohol,” Gameti says.

In another recent case, the Dahod LCB also detected alcohol being smuggled in a vehicle that was allegedly transporting rotten eggs. “The stench was unbearable. The driver was unable to explain why he was continuing the journey when the goods had seemingly perished. When we moved the egg trays, we discovered a stash of alcohol inside,” he adds.

Senior police officers said that increased vigil at the entry points, especially on the Expressway, had helped control the smuggling, but the fact that the Expressway largely remains unmanned has become a ‘boon’ for the bootleggers.
“The Expressway is unmanned until the vehicles make an exit to arrive in Gujarat. While flying squads and specific inputs are intercepted by the local police, there is no mandatory check post on the Expressway. For the cartel smuggling liquor from Punjab to Gujarat via Rajasthan, it is a faster route. However, the Gujarat Police is vigilant and the number of detections has increased at entry points.”

The senior officer adds that while suppliers of alcohol largely hail from Punjab, it is the “operators” and “facilitators” in Rajasthan, who are handed out the task of transporting the liquor to Gujarat.

The officer added, “But if you are the Gujarat Police, you would view a false ceiling, in a car hood, a propylene gas tanker and even electrical switchboards with a different eye… All of these have been used to either store or smuggle in liquor in the state… Try as much as they can, we will still bust their innovations.”

Saroli police inspector S R Vekariya in Surat city said, “We also detected an illegal racket selling IMFL bottles over a month ago. Acting on a tip-off, we have carried out raids in a transport office at Saroli. The consignment came from Haryana. The sender had kept the receiver’s name hidden in a code word. Over 50 liquor bottles, each costing over Rs 5,000, were well packed in a parcel box. We have taken statements from the transport office owner, and are on the way to identify and catch the consignment sender.”

Surat Range Inspector General Premvir Singh says, “Police are also updating themselves to decode the novel ideas adopted by bootleggers in the illicit trade of IMFL. Bootleggers always try to outsmart police, but not for long. Any new idea adopted by the bootleggers is decoded sooner or later.”

Loaded leads

A few months ago, Ichhapore police station personnel in Surat City stopped a tempo carrying oxygen bottles to a hospital. An informer had tipped off the police that the truck was smuggling liquor. Police stopped the vehicle and climbed on the carrier and found a huge consignment of 1,512 IMFL bottles. Police arrested the driver and seized the tempo with liquor bottles worth around Rs 16.60 lakh.

Singh says that nothing beats human intelligence when it comes to busting bootlegged liquor. “The detection of prohibition cases is done through human intelligence, technical surveillance of the mobile phone of the suspected persons and by police on the road during vehicle checkings.”

According to a police source, information reaches the police department in different ways — either from the rival business group, or from the shop owner from where the liquor consignment is bought to be trafficked or someone from the bootlegger’s neighbourhood who nurses a grudge.

Surat district Superintendent of police Rajesh Gadhiya says: “We do know that the bootleggers use the Expressway for safe transit of vehicles loaded with IMFL bottles. We have deployed our staff on the entry point of the Expressway at Ena village and the end point at Kim. The cops check suspected vehicles at the entry points of both ends in Surat district and intercept them. We have busted several rackets trafficking IMFL on the expressway.”

Gadhiya says that even if they get a lead they cannot “chase” vehicles on the Expressway. “Because vehicles are speeding and it is risky. So we have decided to deploy police on the entry points of the Expressway,” he says.
Officials of the National Highway Authority of India told The Indian Express that the law enforcement agencies, especially the local police, have the responsibility of setting up check posts at the exit points of the Expressway.

Blocking the booze

₹13.13 crore

Dahod district police have seized a total of Rs 13.13 crore worth of liquor since January 1. A total of 3,500 cases were booked and 2,023 accused arrested

₹1.68 crore

Vadodara city police seized liquor worth Rs 1.68 crore from January 1 to 31, filing 214 FIRs and arresting 253 accused