HYDERABAD: Recent searches conducted by the Anti-Corruption Bureau sleuths on the liquor syndicates in the state have brought to light the deep nexus between unscrupulous businessmen and excise department officials with ACB officials finding that many excise officials were extending loans running into lakhs of rupees to liquor syndicates.The searches were conducted in 22 places in Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore, Warangal and Hyderabad for two days from January 27 and relevant records were seized for further investigation, the ACB said in a release on Sunday.The ACB had registered criminal cases against the eleven syndicate leaders on January 25 based on scrutiny reports on the data gathered from searches that took place in December 2011.“The scrutiny reports running into about 750 pages contain hundreds of entries relating to payment of bribes to different persons,” the release said adding, “Many officials of the Excise department were totally involved in arranging finance for liquor syndicates in addition to accepting bribes on a recurrent basis from the traders.” The documents recovered during searches revealed that in one instance some excise officials in their personal capacity had given a loan to the tune of Rs2.44 crore to just one leader of the syndicate during 2011.One head constable alone was learnt to have given Rs53 lakh loan.This is also the first time liquor traders have been arrested on corruption charges on the ground that one who bribes officials is equally punishable. The 11 liquor traders and eight excise officials arrested were remanded to judicial custody.
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