Coimbatore: 972 bottles of liquor stolen from Tasmac outlet

COIMBATORE: Cases of liquor smuggling and stealing are on the rise in the district with the Tasmac outlets and bars remaining closed because of the lockdown.
On Thursday alone, the district reported two such cases - two men broke into a Tasmac outlet on Sulur-Kangeyampalayam road and made away with 972 bottles of liquor worth Rs 1.73 lakh, while another two smuggled 320 bottles of liquor into Bharathi Nagar near Mettupalayam from Karnataka.
The Sulur police said two unidentified people, who had covered their faces with clothes, entered the Tamac shop in their jurisdiction by making a hole on the wall in the early hours of the day.
A police officer said the incident came to light when they visited the outlet during the night rounds. “Immediately, we alerted higher officials, who rushed to the spot. The Tasmac outlet has two CCTV cameras and we have collected the footage from them for further investigation.”
In the second incident, a truck owner and driver were arrested while smuggling 320 bottles of liquor worth Rs 1.14 lakh into the district from Karnataka. The Mettupalayam police said they stopped the truck at Bharathi Nagar in the morning based on a tip that two people were smuggling liquor bottles by hiding them in a truck laden with paper.
A police officer identified the accused driver as K Babu alias Muniyappan, 45, of Badugar Colony at Mettupalayam, and truck owner as C Rajendran, a resident of Gandhi Nagar. “We have arrested the duo and seized the liquor bottles along with the truck.”