Inspector B D Tandel of Fatehganj police station said that the contractors, A. Jaiswal and Thakker, were arrested after the recovery of the liquor from the canteen. The accused, however, were let out on bail by a city court.

Tandel said that during interrogation the two disclosed that the liquor belong to a one Naresh who hailed from Rajasthan. ``They said that the consignment was handed over by Naresh who used to operator from an area near the Vishwamirti bridge,'' Tandel said. However, police did not find any substantial clue when they raided a place near Vishwamitri bridge. Tandel expressed the hope that they would crack the case despite the accused being let out on bail.

Meanwhile, the principal of the college D. Patel said, ``Our prime suspicion was on the contractor of the canteen A. Jaiswal, and we suspect that supplying of liquor must have gone on for quite some time, not only for the students but he must have been earning by selling liquor even to outsiders.

Patel added that the supply of these liquors could have gone to the inmates of the polytechnic hostel and even the residents of the nearby area. Sources in the college said that the reason for suspicion on the contractor was primarily because eight years ago an action was taken on a relative of Jaiswal.

``Our suspicion was that these people must have used the barrels to preserve the crates which they had been purchasing and later would keep it underground so that it could be served chilled to the customers,'' said Patel.

He added when these barrels were brought out nothing except cold water was found from these barrels. Patel added that the college authorities had already sought the permission for bringing floating tenders to get new contracts for the canteen.