VIJAYAWADA: ACB sleuths had collected substantial evidence concerning payments made to excise state task force officers and others during their raids on liquor syndicate offices in Guntur district, though they could not find anything substantial in Vijaywada. They seized inner and outer ledgers, daytoday ledgers and computer hard disks during Guntur raids. While the inner ledger is made available only to the managements, the outer ledger is maintained for the purpose of official accounting.According to sources, the syndicates collect money from wine shops to pay Rs 2,000 each to police and excise task forces and Rs 5,000 per month for paying the minister concerned."We are not expecting anything sensational in this case. The seized records were sent to Karimnagar for the purpose of presenting evidence in the case relating to the arrested task force staff. A report will also be sent to the government," said an officer with the ACB.There are 342 wine shops and 458 bar and restaurants and permit rooms in Guntur dsitrict and an estimated 4,000 belt shops are also running in the district.While the revenue to the government from liquor shops in the district was Rs 213 crore during 200810, it increased to Rs 533 crore subsequently.It may be recalled that the Dachepally wine shop alone fetched Rs 5.21 crore to the government in the last auction.In Krishna district, there are 335 wine shops and 166 bar and restaurants, which made Rs 428 crore worth of liquor transactions from April 2010 to October 2011.
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