840 litres of illegal spirit seized, 6 from Bihar held in Jharkhand’s Palamu

MEDHININAGAR: The police seized 840 litres of illegal spirit during a raid in Jharkhand’s Palamu district and arrested six men from Bihar on the charge of trying to transport the liquor to the neighbouring state, where consumption of liquor is banned, an officer said on Monday.

The raid was conducted near a wine shop on the Chattarpur-Japla main road within the Chattarpur police station limits, following a tip-off that illegal spirit was being transported to Bihar via a pickup van escorted by a car, they said.

“Upon searching the vehicle, 840 litres of illegal spirit were recovered. Following this, six people on board the vehicle were arrested. However, the car driver escorting the pickup van fled,” said SDPO of Chattarpur, Awadh Kumar Yadav.

All six accused hail from different parts of Bihar’s Aurangabad district. During interrogation, they said they were transporting spirit for making spurious liquor, Yadav said.

The Bihar government in 2016 enforced a complete ban on the manufacture, trade, storage, transportation, sale, and consumption of liquor and intoxicants in the state. However, this led to scores of hooch tragedies resulting in numerous deaths.

The Patna High Court recently criticised the Bihar government over the “failure” of the state machinery in effectively implementing the prohibition law, and warned that citizens’ lives were being put at risk.