Bihar liquor ban: 13,839 arrested in five months under new law

Patna: As many as 4,167 people were arrested in August in Bihar for violating the new Bihar prohibition law, the highest in the last five months, with a total of 13,839 arrests made and 11,679 litre of foreign liquor and 92,291.47 litre of country spirit seized over the entire period. The Excise and Prohibition department said on Thursday August’s arrest and seizure was the highest under the new liquor law since it came into force in April. A total of 13,839 people were arrested for violation of the liquor law from April to August, Excise Commissioner Aditya Kumar Das told reporters reading out month-wise statistics. [caption id=“attachment_265908” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational Image. Reuters[/caption] A total of 13,805 people were sent to jail on specific charges, Das, who was accompanied by Joint Commissioner of Excise Satyendra Kumar Sinha and Assistant Excise Commissioner OP Mandal, said. The officials said 11,679 litre of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and 92,291.47 litre of country liquor were seized during the period. They said a total of 23,651.50 litre of liquor, smuggled from other states, was seized in the last five months with the maximum amount coming from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. About 8,653.83 litre of liquor, being illegally traded from Uttar Pradesh, was seized in the last five months, they said, adding that the figures were 5,597.82, 4,973.31, 3,940.98, 470.16, 1.65 and 13.75 litre from West Bengal, Jharkhand, Haryana, Nepal, Arunachal Pradesh and elsewhere respectively. In Uttar Pradesh, bordering Bhabua in Kaimur district accounted for the biggest seizure of 8,334.26 litre, they said. A total of 165.44 litre of liquor from Uttar Pradesh was seized at Gopalganj and 94.16 litre at Buxar. Likewise, the biggest seizure of 4,817.97 litre from West Bengal was made at Kisanganj district. From Jharkhand, the biggest seizure was from Rohtas at 973 litre followed by Begusarai and Madhepura. Cumulatively, 4,660.15 litre of country spirit, smuggled into Bihar, was seized during the period from various places. The biggest amount of 2,451.05 litre smuggled country liquor came from Jharkhand, followed by 1,813.73 litre from Nepal, they said. From Uttar Pradesh, 166.93 litre of illegal country spirit was brought into Bihar from April to August. The biggest seizure of 119.55 litre of country spirit from Uttar Pradesh was made at Gopalganj where 18 persons had died recently because of suspected consumption of hooch, they said. The officials said a meeting of senior officials of the Excise departments of Bihar and Jharkhand has been called at Koderma in the neighbouring state on 6 September to check smuggling of liquor into Bihar.