Nepal Police Sunday seized 325 cartons of unlabeled wine hidden in the Nepali Congress Election Campaign Office and Nepali Congress Party Worker Mahendra Gupta’s house in Nawalparasi district.
None of the seized 10,800 bottles of wine carried any In-Land Revenue Sticker and producer’s label. But the police has initially confirmed that the unlabeled and tax-evaded wine was produced by Sundari Distillery (P) Ltd. owned by a relative of former State Home Minister Devendra Kandel, who is a Nepali Congress candidate of Nawalparasi Constituency 4 for the Constituent Assembly elections scheduled for November 19, 2013.
The police had raided the Nepali Congress Election Campaign Office and the party worker’s house at local people’s pressure.
In Nepal, wine is widely used to influence voters, especially in semi-urban and rural areas, where politics is heavily communalized, ignoring the need to upgrade voters’ democratic consciousness.
There is no information about any arrest related to violation of election laws and regulations as well as tax evasion of a huge quantity of wine.