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Orissa's alleged liquor king arrested, remanded

M I Khan in Bhubaneswar

The sub-divisional judicial magistrate of Dhenkanal remanded Surendranath Das alias Belu, alleged liquor baron and kingpin of the 1992 Cuttack hooch tragedy that claimed more than 200 lives, to police custody for three days on Sunday evening.

The crime branch had arrested Belu on Saturday in Cuttack on charges of illegal trading in Indian-made foreign liquor.

Belu was wanted for the illegal transportation of IMFL from Madhya Pradesh to Cuttack on May 23, 1999. The crime branch took up the case in July.

The police, while producing Belu before the magistrate, had pleaded for his custody for a few days more for further interrogation. The magistrate allowed the plea and directed the police to produce Belu on September 28.

Sources in the Cuttack crime branch told rediff.com that during the raid on Belu's residence and other places connected with him, the police seized several documents relating to his illegal activities. The documents also revealed ownership of property worth millions of rupees.

A high-level meeting of crime branch officers, including the additional director general of police in charge of the department, was held in the Cuttack police headquarters on Sunday to chalk out a course of action.

Sources said raids in the last two days had established that Belu had shifted his thrust from liquor to timber after the Cuttack hooch tragedy. "Belu for the last few years was controlling timber smuggling in the state," a top police officer said. He said recent seizures of a huge quantity of valuable timber in Cuttack gave an indication of his areas of operation.

The police are now searching for Belu's lockers and bank accounts. They have already identified a seven-storeyed building worth Rs 8 million and seized documents of a large number of cars, a Tata Sumo, jeeps, vans and trucks.

The sources said Belu's arrest was preceded by raids in Madras, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra in connection with the supply and sale of illicit liquor.

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