Murshidabad: Officials seize 70 litres of liquor wrapped in TMC flags ahead of phase 1 polls
Telegraph | 23 April 2026
While Bengal observes a 96-hour liquor ban ahead of the first phase of the Assembly elections, police and the excise department late Tuesday night seized a luxury car carrying a large consignment of liquor during a raid in Murshidabad’s Daulatabad area.
Daulatabad falls under the Baharampur Assembly constituency in the district.
During the search, officials recovered nine cases of foreign liquor- around 70.2 litres- from the vehicle. Preliminary investigations say that the cases were covered by TMC flags and banners so that they remain concealed during naka checking.
The police have seized a Scorpio car, which was used by Abdur Rahman Jami, a close aide of outgoing Raninagar MLA Soumik Hossain, reported the Indian Express.
The police chase began after they got a tip-off at 11 pm that a white Scorpio was heading towards Raninagar from Berhampur at high speed. While a checkpoint was set up near the Chhayghari-Hasanpur intersection of Daulatabad police station, when they signalled the vehicle to stop, the driver attempted to evade them by speeding away.
After a chase that lasted several kilometres, the police eventually intercepted and surrounded the vehicle at the Chhayghari intersection.
The driver and another individual have been arrested and taken to the Berhampur police station. Authorities are now probing the origin of the liquor and examining whether a larger smuggling network is involved.