‘Daaru, not dardi’: In dry Gujarat, ambulance is caught ferrying booze, not patients

The Gujarat Police on Friday (September 11) stopped an ambulance on the Bhavnagar-Rajkot highway that passes through Babara taluka of Amreli district. While the type of vehicle and its speed suggested it was transporting a patient, it turned out to be ferrying an altogether different kind of cargo: 1,968 bottles of illegal Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) stuffed inside a hidden cabinet.

The Amreli Police had been tipped off that a vehicle was transporting illegal IMFL across state lines, between Madhya Pradesh and Rajkot in Gujarat, and would pass through their district. IMFL is the official term used to describe Western-style hard spirits manufactured in India.

Based on the information they received, the police set up a watch on the highway. And sure enough, on Friday evening, they spotted the ambulance rolling up. The vehicle was flagged down, and the driver was asked to open the back of the vehicle.

However, when the police inspected it, everything seemed in order. But then they decided to check the medical cabinet in the vehicle in which equipment is stored. After police had used screwdrivers to unscrew the top of the cabinet, they found what they were looking for – an empty space filled choc-a-block with bottles of liquor.

In all, police recovered 672 flasks, each of 180 ml capacity, of McDowell’s No. 1 Original Reserve Whisky worth Rs 1.35 lakh, and 1,296 flasks, also of 180 ml capacity, of Blender’s Pride Reserve Whisky worth Rs 2.21 lakh.

All of the liquor, along with the ambulance, were seized by the police. The driver of the vehicle, whom police identified as 34-year-old Sagar alias Lalo Kamlesh Gohel, a resident of Gondal, was booked under the Prohibition Act and placed under arrest.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Inspector R R Parmar of Babara police station said that Gohel was not only the driver but also the owner of the ambulance that was being used for bootlegging. Inspector Parmar said that this was Gohel’s second trip smuggling IMFL from Madhya Pradesh to Gujarat.

“Gohel said he had purchased the ambulance from another person, who had, in turn, purchased it from a hospital in Surat. We are checking the registration records as part of further investigation,” Parmar said. The Gujarat Prohibition Act, 1949, regulates the manufacturing, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol and related intoxicants within the state of Gujarat.

Under Section 65 of the Act, anyone who “imports or exports any intoxicant”, “bottles liquor”, or “possesses, transports, sells or buys” any intoxicant, “shall, on conviction, be punished…with imprisonment for a term which may extend to ten years and with fine which may extend to five lakh rupees”.

Brendan Dabhi works with The Indian Express, focusing his comprehensive reporting primarily on Gujarat. He covers the region's most critical social, legal, and administrative sectors, notably specializing at the intersection of health, social justice, and disasters.

Expertise Health and Public Policy: He has deep expertise in healthcare issues, including rare diseases, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), the complex logistics of organ transplants, and public health challenges like drug-resistant TB and heat health surveillance.

His on-ground reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic and Mucormycosis was critical in exposing healthcare challenges faced by marginalized communities in Gujarat. Social Justice and Legal Administration: He reports on the functioning of the legal and police system, including the impact of judicial philosophy, forensics and crucial administrative reforms (.

He covers major surveillance and crackdown exercises by the Gujarat police and security on the international border. Disaster and Crisis Management: His work closely tracks how government and civic bodies respond to large-scale crises, providing essential coverage on the human and administrative fallout of disasters including cyclones, floods, conflict, major fires and reported extensively on the AI 171 crash in Ahmedabad.

Civic Infrastructure and Governance: Provides timely reports on critical civic failures, including large scale infrastructure projects by the railways and civic bodies, as well as the enforcement of municipal regulations and their impact on residents and heritage.

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