Vijayawada: Even as scam after scam is rocking Andhra Pradesh in recent months, especially with the chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu sitting in the new capital area, a huge dump of spurious liquorwas found in a drianage in Balarampet in the Machilipatnam constituency represented by none other than the state Excise Minister Kollu Ravindra on Monday. The liquor bottles were labelled with all regular brands including Royal Stag and Old Tavern. The Excise and Prohibition officials seized 207 bottles with fake labels from a drain.

“The labels on the liquor bottles of various companies have been found fake as they are not certified by the government. The bottles were sent to Regional Excise Chemical Laboratory in Guntur to ascertain the quality of the liquor,” Vijayawada Assistant Commissioner (Excise and Prohibition) NVS Prasad said.

Following the discovery of the fake liquor dump, eight teams of excise officials have been deployed to conduct a check on all the liquor shops in Krishna district. A team led by Mr. Prasad and Krishna District In-Charge Deputy Commissioner (Excise and Prohibition) YB Bhaskara Rao is investigating the case.

It may be recalled here that five persons died and 20 hospitalized after consuming spurious liquor at Swarna Bar in Vijayawada last December. The bar belongs to the family of Vijayawada ex-MLA Malladi Vishnu who is now facing charges of selling spurious liquor and causing the death of five persons.