Thiruvananthapuram: A police investigation will be launched soon into the payment of Rs 35 lakh by a benami (proxy) toddy shop dealer to a manufacturer of spirits in Punjab. The Excise Commissioner has written a letter to the Home Department raising this demand. The excise department had found that Rs 35 lakh had been paid to the Punjab distillery from the account of Sreedharan, a native of Mattathur in Thrissur. Sreedharan has been running over 100 toddy outlets falling under 20 groups by making benami arrangements, which is unlawful as an individual is only allowed to run toddy shops in up to two groups, with each group consisting of 5 to 7 outlets.

The police investigation must find out for what purpose this amount was paid to the distillery. If it was for buying spirit, this means that half a lakh litres of spirit has illegally reached the State, considering the market rate. The amount of fake toddy made by utilizing this substance and the places of its sale are to be traced. The excise department has also decided to register a case and launch an investigation into the benami deal. The investigation will also look into whether excise officials have played any role in these transactions that have been going on for the past two years.

60 shops under 12 groups have had their licenses cancelled while the remaining shops in 8 groups will face similar action soon. Sreedharan had been carrying on with benami trade after obtaining licenses in the name of workers in connivance with some of them. According to the rules, a toddy shop could be allotted to an association which has at least five toddy tappers and one shop employee as members. There should be a minimum of 50 coconut trees that are fit to be tapped within the jurisdiction of each shop. However, most of the shops in the State are functioning in violation of this norm.

The report submitted after the initial investigation in the case had stated that there was no evidence to prove the complaint that was received a year ago. The breakthrough in the case came after incriminating evidence was found in the computer disk seized by T. Anikumar, Assistant Commissioner (Intelligence), who acted on a directive by the Excise Commissioner S. Ananthakrishnan, calling for a detailed investigation into the issue. Evidence of the money being paid to the spirit manufacturing company and related documents were recovered from the hard disk.

Officials hand-in-glove?
Excise officials are tasked with the responsibility of scrutinising all the records such as the application for the permit for transporting toddy from Chittoor in Palakkad district, documents of the vehicles that are issued the permits, and the agreement signed with the owners of the coconut trees that are to be tapped. Had these documents been examined in a proper way, the benami transactions would have been brought to light much earlier. Whether this was an inadvertent oversight or a deliberate act done in connivance with the perpetrators should be proved in the investigation.