Muzaffarnagar police on Tuesday morning seized 425 cartons of illicit liquor worth Rs 18 lakh at Budhana here and arrested a smuggler. The alcohol was found hidden beneath potatoes in a truck going from Punjab to Bihar.According to Budhana police station in-charge Prabhakar Kenthura, while police managed to nab the driver of the truck, another man who was with him managed to escape. A source said that as liquor is completely banned in Bihar, the smugglers took a detour via Uttar Pradesh to transport it.This is not the first time that illicit liquor was seized in the state. On December 12, Muzaffarnagar police arrested two men with 1,000 cartons of illicit liquor worth Rs 35 lakh. The liquor was being smuggled to nearby districts in a truck, which police got to know from a tip-off.Liqour is often brought to Uttar Pradesh from Haryana as it is cheaper there. “There is less tax on liquor in Haryana, which is why smugglers from Uttar Pradesh bring liquor here to sell it at a good price. The excise department's team continues to conduct regular checks and raids to nab the smugglers," said Akhilesh Kumar, the district excise officer.

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