Alcohol pouring out of taps in a Kerala district due to excise department’s callousness

Kerala -- also known as God’s own country, might just become a one-stop paradise for wine connoisseurs as 18 families in Chalakkudy district witnessed alcohol gushing out of taps in their homes. The concoction of beer, brandy, and rum poured out of regular taps on February 3, Monday, reported Manoramaonline.

Residents of the Solomon’s Avenue apartment near the KSRTC bus stand in Thrissur’s Chalakkudy smelled a pungent odour on Sunday evening. The very next day, they were shocked to receive running liquor instead of running water from the taps.

How did this happen?

The act was carried out by a group of excise officials from Irinjalakuda, who callously dumped 6,000 litres of beer and other intoxicants into a pit dug up in the compound, reported Manoramaonline.

According to the owner of the building cited in The NewsMinute (TNM) report, there used to be a bar named Rachana Bar. It was shut down six years ago by the Excise Department, and their liquor stock was sealed.

The department had completed the legal formalities lately and dumped the stock of liquor into the pit they had dug in Solomon Avenue’s compound. The pit was dug so close to the apartment’s well that the spirits percolated through the thin layers of soil and contaminated 20,000 liters of water.

On Sunday evening, the residents filed a complaint at Chalakudy police station. In the night, Municipality and health officials tested the water to confirm the presence of liquor.

Later, the authorities supplied 5,000 litres of drinking water to the apartment.

The owner of the bar has agreed to reimburse the expenses borne by the society to restore the water well. Meanwhile, the excise department has been draining out water from the well to clean it further, TNM report added.

After getting to know about the incident, Deputy Excise Commissioner TK Sanu said that the Excise officials were unaware of the presence of the open well nearby otherwise they would have dumped it somewhere else. He further told that usually, excise officials prefer distilleries. However, it was just 2,000 bottles, so they decided to dump them into the nearest pit, as per TNM report.