Majority of the bootleggers arrested in various parts Gujarat in the wake of the Ahmedabad hooch tragedy are women, according to the police, who have launched a crackdown on liquor suppliers in the state.

A total of 462 bootleggers were arrested during the raids, conducted at different places in Surat, Navsari, Tapi and Valsad districts in south Gujarat till Thursday. Out of these, 243 were women. Most of the arrested women are widows.

Valsad Deputy Superintendent of Police D J Patel said the reason behind the involvement of a high number of widows into the liquor manufacturing and selling activities is that their husbands were also into the business and they got addicted to it and died.

“These women lost their husbands when they were young and thus continued with the liquor business, as they did not have other jobs at hand. We have come across many women running liquor dens. They purchase liquor from Daman and hide it in bags while entering Gujarat. They deliver it to customers on demand,” Patel added.

During the raids, the police teams seized country-made liquor, chemicals, urea and other ingredients used in making the spurious liquor. Also, bottles of IMFL being trafficked in cars were recovered. These bottles were loaded at Daman and were on their way to different parts in Surat.

In central Gujarat — where the police arrested nearly 780 bootleggers from Anand, Bharuch, Vadodara, Panchmahals and Dahod districts — women constituted nearly 30 per cent of the total arrests.

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