Five years of jail for carrying over 1 liquor bottle in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow : In yet another step to cut down liquor business in the Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi Adityanath government has announced a jail term of up to five years and fine on a person found entering UP with more than 1 liquor bottle.

The move comes after UP government realised that people are bringing liquor from Delhi at cheaper rates. As per new announcement, a sentence of up to five years and a fine of Rs 5,000 or ten times the amount the state would have earned from the bottles if purchased within, whichever is higher.

However, none of these rules applies if the bottles are open, says a report in The Times of India. “A person is permitted to bring only a single unit of alcohol at a time into UP from other states and that too only for consumption and not for sale. If more than one bottle being imported is found with the seal intact, it will be presumed it is for sale and the charges of liquor smuggling can be invoked,” said Ghaziabad District Excise Officer Gyanendra Tripathy.

Last year, the state government had assured that they will be imposing tough rules in Uttar Pradesh to cut down liquor sale, which is one of the prime reasons behind large number of deaths.