Patna, Feb 6: Facing criticism over frequent liquor smuggling in Bihar, the state government has come up with a more stringent plan to curb the menace. As part of this plan, the Bihar government will take over and auction properties used for liquor storage in Bihar.
Sanjay Kumar Agrawal, the divisional commissioner of Patna directed District Magistrates (DM), Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs), Superintendents of Police (SP) and Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSP) to act on the directive.
"If the police or excise department seize liquor from a house or godown, the police and civil authority of respective districts are entitled to take over those properties, cancel registry followed by a fresh auction," Agrawal said. He added that the idea is to strongly penalise illegal traders and mafia involved in liquor smuggling, storage and sale.
During an analysis meeting of top officials, Agrawal also directed them to speed up auction of vehicles seized during liquor smuggling in Bihar. "We have asked officials concerned of police, excise, liquor prohibition department and civil department to intensify vehicle checking, surprise raids on suspected houses or godowns and regularly in a bid to implement liquor prohibition laws in state. The top officials have been also asked to do surprise inspections of police stations, police posts and patrolling vehicles to make them efficient and accountable," he said.
Based on results, this policy will be also implemented in other divisions.
Bihar is one of the states in the country that had implemented a liquor ban in 2016 but its smuggling from other states has continued. Liquor made in Haryana as the most popular in Bihar with the prohibition department, excise department and local police seizing it on a large scale.
On Thursday, the liquor prohibition department arrested a person named Ajit Kumar from Sonepat in Haryana. The Gopalganj district police recently recovered a huge cache of liquor. During investigation, name of Ajit Kumar came up. Kumar is one of the prominent Level 1 contractors in Sonepat who allegedly supplied liquor to Bihar worth billions.
"Following the name of Ajit Kumar cropping up during the investigation, we arrested him from Sonepat on Thursday. The accused is a very influential person who even has an armed bodyguard from Haryana police," said an official of the liquor prohibition department.
Besides Haryana, the Seemanchal area connected with West Bengal is another popular route to smuggle liquor into Bihar.
One such incident appeared on February 1 when a Mahindra Bolero SUV mowed down two home guard personnel deployed at the police check post located at Dalkola area under Baryasi police station in Purnea district.
One of the personnel, Ganesh Paswan, died on the spot and another, Vidyanand Kumar was critically injured in the incident.
"During the mishap, the Bolero also collided with with a road divider. Following that the occupants left the vehicle and fled. During a search, the Purnea police recovered 182 litres of Indian Made Foreign liquor (IMFL) made in West Bengal from the SUV," said Maharana Pratap Singh, home guard unit inspector of the Purnea range.
As per data, the liquor prohibition department seized 28,91,730 litres of liquor including 20,32,667 IMFL and 8,59,063 litres of country-made liquor between January 1 and November 30, 2020.
