Many states have gone dry amid the ongoing coronavirus lockdown in the country. The criminals wanting to make the most of the situation are breaking into bars and even houses to steal liquor bottles.
Even as police handle complaints of bars and houses being broken into and liquor cases getting stolen, they are also arresting miscreants selling alcohol several times more than the original price.
At least three bar owners, whose establishments have been sealed by the excise department in the wake of the lockdown, reported that their bars have been broken into and liquor bottles were stolen.
They discovered the thefts when they went to check the seal fixed by the excise department that instructed them to report if they found a fresh seal over the ones they had fixed.
The city police on Tuesday registered seven FIRs under the Karnataka Excise Act and other laws related to the illegal sale and theft of liquor.
In one such incident, Ajith C Ameen, manager of Vaishnavi Palace Bar and Restaurant in Banashankari 6th Stage, lodged a complaint with the Thalaghattapura police station, saying he had closed the bar on March 21, following the government’s lockdown order.
On April 6, he received a call from his friend about a theft in the bar, following which he rushed to the place and found that thieves had broken the rolling shutter, looted money from the cash counter and made away with some liquor bottles. He alerted the excise officials and the police.
On the same night, thieves had also broken open SV Bar and Restaurant in Kembathalli in the same police station limits and fled with liquor bottles.
The Rajarajeshwari Nagar police registered an FIR against four people who sold 180 ML liquor in tetra packs, worth Rs 60 and Rs 90, for Rs 500 on bikes at Dr Vishnuvardhan Main Road.
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