Excise 'on the rocks' in booze group GNPC chase

Thiruvananthapuram: The Excise Department's highly publicised attempts to nab the group admins of the Facebook group 'Glassile Nurayum Platile Curryum' (GNPC) seems to have lost its fizz. The department has virtually called off the probe.

The Excise sleuths had hoped that the Police Department's Hi-Tech Cell would fish out the identities, especially the IP addresses, of the 38 moderators of the GNPC group for it. What the cell eventually gave them, and that too may days late, was nothing but a screenshot with just the names on it.

“What are we to do with just names,” the excise official in charge of the GNPC probe said. “Without the IP addresses we are not sure how to take the case forward,” the official said. (The identities of the two main admins – Ajith Kumar and his wife Vineetha – were known but the two have slipped the excise net and have reportedly flown outside the country.) Strangely, the screenshot provided by the Hi-Tech Cell has held back the names of two moderators. Excise officials suspect that these two are policemen.

A senior Hi-Tech Cell official said that by the time the probe began the moderators had left the group. “Once a person leaves a group, not a trace of him will be seen again. Facebook, too, will not share the history. So there is no possibility of gathering valuable information from online footprints like IP addresses,” the official added. (An IP address essentially reveals the host and the location of the user.)

The attempt of the Cyber Cell, which is under the city police commissioner, to get Facebook to shut down the group also fell flat. Facebook had replied that the arguments put forward to shut a popular group that has 18 lakh members was unsatisfactory. The Cyber Cell had reportedly not consulted the Hi-Tech Cell, which is under the DGP, before approaching FB. “They just asked the social media giant that the group be shut down without providing enough evidence. It was easy for the FB to ignore the demand,” the Hi-Tech official said.

In fact, the excise sleuths did not have a big case against GNPC to begin with. When excise commissioner Rishi Raj Singh asked the Hi-Tech Cell to shut down the group, the Hi-Tech Cell had informed him that it would be difficult. The commissioner was also told that if at all a case had to be registered against the GNPC it can be done only under the Abkari Act and not under the Indian Penal Code.

The only serious case the excise had managed to foist on the GNPC was that it had conducted an anniversary party where liquor was illegally sold after collecting Rs 1,500 coupons; the Abkari Act says that liquor can be sold only by the state. So, a non-bailable case under section 55(i) of the Kerala Abkari Act was slapped on the group.

But the other charge, under section 55(h) of the Kerala Abkari Act, which prohibits the advertisement of liquor brands, will not hold up. The Excise Department was told that even the government advertised the prices of various liquor brands on WhatsApp. Being a closed group, the GNPC cannot be charged with leading the public astray.

The third charge that photographs of liquor consumption were posted on the page without the statutory warning is not a grave one. The accused can wriggle out of this by paying a small fine.

But there is one charge that could stick, provided the Excise Department can identify the accused. Some of the photographs on the GNPC page had adults consuming liquor in the presence of children. A case has, therefore, also been registered under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. Intriguingly, the Cyber Cell had not mentioned this violation of the group in the letter it had sent the FB asking that the group be shut down.