On March 8, 2026, excise staff intercepted 78 liquor bottles near the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in a patch of land called Pahadishareef. Six people now face charges for carrying glass filled with liquid that bypassed local state taxes. These bottles, labeled in Delhi and Goa, were moved to the Meerpet excise station for storage while the state decides how to punish the carriers.
This small seizure is a piece of a larger, jagged pattern where liquor flows from low-tax zones into high-tax cities.
State teams focus their checks on vehicles exiting the airport or moving through Pahadishareef, a bottleneck where travel meets oversight.
The state views this as a direct theft from the public purse, labeling the bottles as "Non-Duty Paid Liquor" (NDPL) to justify the constant stopping of cars.
The Geography of Tax Avoidance
The geography of these arrests suggests a persistent route. Bottles from Goa—where prices are low—and Delhi are funneled through the airport or driven across borders to reach Hyderabad. The official logic rests on the loss to the "exchequer," a term used to describe the collective pot of money the government keeps.
"The smuggling of non-duty liquor causes a loss to State exchequer," an official noted during a previous catch in February 2026.
Frequency of Enforcement Near RGIA
| Date | Bottles Seized | Persons Booked/Arrested | Key Location | Estimated Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 8, 2026 | 78 | 6 | Pahadishareef | Not stated |
| Feb 26, 2026 | 141 | Not specified | Pahadishareef | Not stated |
| Oct 10, 2025 | 198 | 12 | Pahadishareef | Rs 8 lakh |
| Sep 17, 2025 | 88 | 6 | Hyderabad City | Rs 4.5 lakh |
The Persistent State Filter
The state maintains a "State Task Force" (STF) specifically to filter traffic for these items. While the March 8 seizure was small—78 bottles—it follows a much larger history of the state trying to plug the holes in its revenue fence. In October 2025, a similar group of 12 persons was caught with 198 bottles worth an estimated Rs 8 lakh, proving the high markup on these untaxed goods.
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Enforcement Director Shahnawaz Qasim has previously lauded these "drives," which act as temporary dams against the fluid movement of goods.
The Prohibition and Excise Department uses "special drives" to increase the frequency of searches when they believe the volume of untaxed alcohol is rising.
Historical Context of the Flow
The tension between state borders and alcohol prices is old. In September 2024, excise staff caught a group of 12 people at the airport with 415 bottles. The repetition of these arrests at Pahadishareef shows that the path remains the same even as the names of those arrested change. The state treats these individuals not merely as travelers with luggage, but as small-scale fiscal disruptions. The focus remains on the "non-duty paid" status, highlighting that the crime is not the possession of the liquid, but the failure to pay the local government for the privilege of carrying it across a map line.
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