SIT’s immediate focus will be on high-profile cases in Mulakalacheruvu and Ibrahimpatnam, where police have made several arrests.
Published Oct 13, 2025 | 3:33 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 13, 2025 | 3:33 PM
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. (Supplied)
Synopsis: Amid escalating deaths from spurious liquor in Andhra Pradesh, CM N Chandrababu Naidu announced a five-member SIT to dismantle the illicit network, launching the “AP Excise Suraksha” app for bottle verification. YSRCP decries it as a cover-up, launching protests and demanding CBI probe, while Naidu blames the prior regime and suspends implicated TDP leaders.
In a move to rein in the growing menace of adulterated liquor in Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday, October 12, announced the formation of a five-member SIT to probe what he described as a “deep-rooted” spurious liquor racket in the state.
The SIT, headed by Eluru Range Inspector General GVG Ashok Kumar, includes Prohibition and Excise Enforcement Director Rahul Dev Sharma and IPS officers K Chakravarthy, T Srinivas Rao, and Mallika Garg. It has been tasked with unearthing the network behind the illegal trade that has reportedly claimed several lives and led to hundreds of hospitalisations in recent months.
The announcement came against the backdrop of mounting political heat, with the Opposition YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) accusing the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP)-led coalition of “direct complicity” in what it called the “biggest scam in the country.”
Not stopping at that, the YSRCP has launched a statewide agitation, alleging that spurious liquor has turned into a life-threatening crisis for the poor and that the government is shielding those responsible.
Former ministers K Narayana Swamy and Kakani Govardhan Reddy dismissed the SIT as a “political eyewash,” saying it was constituted to water down the investigation and bury the truth.
“Every SIT Chandrababu forms is a smokescreen—to protect the guilty and target his opponents,” they charged.
YSRCP chief and former Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy accused Naidu of turning Andhra Pradesh into the “number one state in fake liquor trade.”
Taking to X recently, he pointed to a recent incident in Mulakalacheruvu, Annamayya district, where local TDP leaders allegedly operated a counterfeit liquor factory. “This is not just illegal trade; it’s organised crime that endangers lives and drains the state exchequer,” he said.
Naidu, announcing the SIT at his Amaravati camp office, also unveiled the “AP Excise Suraksha” mobile app—designed to help consumers verify bottle authenticity by scanning barcodes to check manufacturing details, certification, and supply chain records. He described the app as a “technological bulwark” against the spread of spurious liquor and vowed to “dismantle the belt shop culture” that has proliferated under lax oversight.
The CM hit back at the Opposition, blaming the previous YSRCP regime for turning Andhra Pradesh into a “criminal empire fueled by ganja cultivation, illegal distilleries, and liquor scams.” He said fake liquor was “one of the major problems inherited by this coalition government” and warned that there would be “no leniency for the guilty, irrespective of political affiliation.”
The SIT’s immediate focus will be on high-profile cases in Mulakalacheruvu (Annamayya district) and Ibrahimpatnam (Krishna district), where police have made several arrests.
In Mulakalacheruvu, 23 persons have been identified and 16 arrested so far. Officials found that some suspects were allegedly trained in counterfeit liquor production techniques in Africa. Raids there uncovered 65,000 fake bottles adulterated with industrial chemicals such as methanol, battery acid, and even pesticides. These were distributed through over two lakh unregulated “belt shops” across the state.
In the Ibrahimpatnam case, police have arrested seven out of 12 suspects, while four more are absconding. Naidu contrasted his government’s swift action with the YSRCP regime’s “silence” over the 2023 Jangareddygudem tragedy, where 27 people allegedly died after consuming contaminated liquor. “They played politics over deaths—shava rajakeeyalu,” Naidu said.
To signal accountability, Naidu suspended TDP leaders allegedly involved in the Mulakalacheruvu racket, including Thamballapalle Assembly in-charge Jayachandra Reddy and Katta Surendra Naidu.
“Even if they are from my own party, action will be taken,” he asserted. “Unlike YSRCP, we will not reward scamsters with MLA tickets.”
The government has denied systemic lapses under its watch, blaming “vested interests” for spreading false narratives to create public mistrust. Naidu cited an Eluru case where postmortem tests ruled out spurious liquor as the cause of death, saying “even natural deaths are being politicised.”
Meanwhile, YSRCP MP PV Midhun Reddy, who himself faced probe in a Rs 3,200-crore excise case during his party’s tenure, has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking a CBI probe, alleging the SIT was formed to delay justice. The party maintains that during its rule, liquor was sourced exclusively from 20 empanelled distilleries with strict quality controls and that over 43,000 belt shops had been shut down.
As both parties trade charges, the spurious liquor crisis has emerged as a political flashpoint in Andhra Pradesh, testing Naidu’s resolve to prove that his SIT is a genuine attempt at cleansing the system—and not another political fig leaf.
(Edited by Amit Vasudev)
