The picture of queues lining outside liquor shops has gone viral on social media.  The incident is a catch-22 for the Government officials as they preach ‘Stay home to beat COVID19’ narrative. But, on the other hand, it would put smirk on Administrative Officers working in the Revenue Department of State Governments. Since, it will help in garnering in revenue stealth to the State finances marred by COVID19 induced lockdown of economic activities.

Plus, alcohol acts as major avenue of revenue support in form of excise revenues which form forms ten-to-fifteen per cent of State’s own tax revenue as reported in a report by the Reserve Bank of India in September 2019.

The epitome of formal studies on relation between alcohol and crime is the comprehensive statistics report published by the National Crime Records Bureau (‘NCRB’, for brevity), Ministry of Home Affairs. In its latest avatar released in starting of this momentuous year ‘2020’, the incidence volume of crime related to ‘Liquor and Narcotic Drugs’ came out at 8,63,696, accounting for 65.3 % of the crime rate.

The authors explore the relation between chronic alcoholism and criminal responsibility in India in the Research Paper titled, “ALCOHOLISM AND CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY IN INDIA – Tallying Biological effects of alcohol consumption in influencing criminal activities.” They conduct a survey, and relate the data with biological effects of alcohol on human body post-consumption of alcohol to substantiate the reality brushed under the carpet.

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