According to a senior official in the prohibition department, as it is not possible to check each and every bus and each and every passenger on them, smuggling is continuing on a large-scale. But, he said, on receiving information, raids are conducted time and again to keep a check on smuggling.

The official said smuggling by buses was not a new phenomenon, but its detection was difficult because Indian-made foreign liquors (IMFLs), unlike country-made liquors, did not send any strong aroma when sealed. He also said on most occasions, the conductors and drivers of the buses are themselves involved in the offence or are hand-in-glove with the smugglers.

His view was substantiated by A C Bhargava, executive director (vigilance) of GSRTC, who said on a tip-off that liquor bottles were being brought from Daman and Diu on the corporation buses, he sent a team on April 20 to conduct surprise check and recovered 279 bottles of liquor from three buses.

Giving the details of the recovery, he said with the help of local police, raids were carried out on April 22 on two buses at Keshariyaji bus stop under Una police station. The conductor of the bus running on the Diu-Rajkot route and belonging to the Limdi depot, was caught carrying 20 bottles of liquor. The conductor, Rajendrasinh Rana was arrested and a case under Section 66 B and 65 AE of the IPC was registered against him.

On the same day and on the same spot, another bus of the Dhol depot running on the Diu-Jamnagar route was raided. While conductor Bhavanisinh Gambhirsinh Jadeja was caught carrying three bottles, the driver Jaivirsinh Manubha Jadeja was found hiding five bottles under the diesel tank. A case was registered and both were arrested.

According to Bhargava, another raid was conducted on April 26 on a bus running on Daman-Vapi route and several passengers were found carrying IMFLs. While three bottles of IMFL were seized from Rajubhai Uttambhai Chaudhary of Ummargam under Vapi police station, 18 bottles were seized from Ramesh Magan Damor of Maroli, 19 from Durjansinh Jokhamsinh Rajput and Rajesh Mangalsinh Thakore of Udhna, Surat, 85 from Narsinh Ismail Pathan and Mumtaz Ismail Malik of Navsari and 114 bottles of IML and 12 bottles of country made liquor were seized from Manjulaben Rameshbhai Koli of Valsad.

Bhargava said, "such raids would continue to prevent misuse of GSRTC buses for anti-prohibition activities." The job of the law-enforcing agencies becomes easier if common people cooperate with them and inform them about any such activities," he added.

N C Dave, vice-chairman and managing director of GSRTC, said the Vigilance Department generally conduct surprise checks to detect ticket-less passengers and to find out whether the drivers and conductors were hand-in-glove with the passengers and purposely not issuing tickets.

Dave said detection of liquor smugglers was a `side-issue' for the corporation because it was not possible to cross-check information every time it was received. He also said since 42 lakh passengers travelled on GSRTC buses everyday, it was not possible to check them everyday. But he said the authorities certainly act promptly whenever they receive any concrete information.

But as the GSRTC and prohibition department authorities express helplessness in checking the menace, liquor smuggling by buses will go on in the State.