Bhubaneswa, Jan 29: Excise department has seized 5503 litres of duplicate Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) by December last year.

This was revealed during the State Excise review meeting held today under the Chairmanship of Sushil Kumar Lohani, Principal Secretary of Excise Department.

As per information, by end of December as many as 270107 excise cases were detected with arrest of 22355 persons and seizure of 732437 litres of I.D liquor, 2034 litres of non-duty paid IMFL, 21046 kgs of ganja, 9.28 kgs brown sugar and 581 litres of cough syrup. The value total of seizure during this period stood at Rs 97.89 crore.

Besides, hemp plants illegally cultivated in 18890 acres of land were destroyed by the joint effort of excise and police personnel in eight major hemp cultivated prone districts including Kandhamal, Boudh, Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Gajapati and Ganjam.