Members of Gujarat legislative Assembly, officials, media men and all others in attendance were stunned on Monday when a septuagenarian retired school principal hurled a plastic pouch, filled with country made liquor, in the House protestesting against alleged illicit trade of liquor in ‘dry’ Gujarat. “The incident took place at around 3 pm during the budgetary discussion on agriculture demand. The person identified as Babubhai Patel was captured and was taken out of the House. later on, he was detained for obstructing proceedings of the House following the Speaker’s order,” said official source in the Gujarat Assembly.
The source said Patel is the resident of Jetalvasana village situated near Visnagar town in North Gujarat. Along with a plastic pouch, he also threw pamphlet with anti-liquor consumption slogans. During the interrogation, he claimed he is an activist and fighting against the menace of liquor and he threw the polybag to show anger against Gujarat Police for not taking appropriate measures against illicit liquor trade across the State.
Patel was the principal in a school situated in Vadnagar town. The pouch has been sent to Forensic Science laboratory for examination. Co-incidentally, in the written answer to an unstarred question, Gujarat Government said in the last five years the Gujarat Police has destroyed Indian Made Foreign liquor (IMFl), beer and country made liquor of worth Rs206.68 crore. In the answer it was mentioned that the State police seized and destroyed total 2,32, 98,418 bottles of IMFl and 4.28 lakh litters of country made liquor. “Highest number of IMFl bottles was seized from the districts Patan, Banaskantha, Valasad, Navasari and Dahod situated on the borders of neighboring States Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.