Though the complaint registered by G S Patil, a guard of the Bharuch-Surat Shuttle, is a glaring evidence of large-scale bootlegging through trains approaching the city a practice admitted by both the railway and the prohibition police very little seems to be done to check the menace.

According to information, a mob of passengers gheraoed the driver and guard of the train on Wednesday after it made an unscheduled halt after Gothan, while approaching the city railway station. The passengers then burst hundreds of potlis (transparent plastic pouches containing country liquor) that had been loaded in the train and beat up a few people reportedly transporting liquor. All the bootleggers then fled.

The passengers, however, then vented their anger on Patil and beat him up. Patil later lodged a complaint in the Surat Railway station stating that while a mob of passengers surrounded him, four unidentified people beat him up alleging that the rail staff deliberately halted the train to facilitate loading and unloading of country-liquor.

But, according to Patil, the bootleggers in fact had pulled the chain or released the pressure valve of the compartment to stop the train.

Talking to Express Newsline, railway police station PI R A Rathod said that though policemen accompanied Patil to Gothan railway station, he could not identify either the passengers who beat him up or the bootleggers.

Even PSI M K Parmar, who went with a team to Gothan did not meet with much suceess. The police party though even paraded a few listed bootleggers from Gothan and other places before the guard, he failed to identify anyone.

Jashu Barot, president of Shakti Autorickshaw Sangh, alleged that most passenger trains, like the MEMU and shuttles, invariably stopped before the Katargam flyover, ensuring that the liquor was off-loaded. ``According to rickshaw drivers, this takes place daily and the liquor was brought from Kosad, Gothan, Utran and other places,'' he said.

The prohibition police, while stating that they had no role to play in this particular case, admitted the practice to be rampant. ``We have made registered a number of cases in the past,'' said a constable, admitting that liquor was being brought into the city on a regular basis.