PATNA: The “secret” of thousands of seized liquor bottles missing or lying empty in the police storerooms has begun coming to light slowly.
In the past two days, the authorities in Bihar have arrested three police officials, including the president of the Bihar Police Men’s Association, for boozing.
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The arrest comes amid the poor rats being blamed by the cops in-charge of the storerooms, for the gulping down around 900,000 litres of confiscated alcohol!
In a latest development, Rameshwar Singh, officer-in-charge of the Qazi Mohammadpur police station in Muzaffarpur district, was arrested late Thursday night for allegedly drinking liquor in the police station itself.
As per reports, the liquor he was drinking had been recovered from the possession of an illegal liquor supplier.
Reports said the accused police official sitting in the police station was making lewd remarks at the passersby under the influence of liquor when the senior officials in the district were informed about this.
Soon a team of police from the other police station reached the spot and tried to take him under custody but he hid inside a scrap godown.
Reports said the police had to battle hard to arrest him. Soon after his arrest, he was placed under suspension and departmental proceedings started against him.
Barely hours ago, two other police officials, including the president of the Bihar Police Men’s Association Nirmal Singh, had been arrested from the police lines in Patna.
The arrest followed soon after Singh allegedly under the influence of alcohol started calling up senior officials on Wednesday night and hurling abuses at them, according to reports.
Subsequently, they were produced in a local court which remanded them to 14-day judicial custody.
Earlier in February this year, all policemen posted at the Beur police station in Patna district had been removed from the police station on the complaints of violating liquor laws and protecting the illegal liquor traders.
All these surface in the state which enforced total liquor last year and then formed world’s longest human chain against alcoholism in January this year.
Meanwhile, the state government in Bihar has ordered a probe into the mysterious disappearance of seized liquor stocks from the police storerooms shortly after the rats were blamed for “partying” on the liquor bottles.
“We have asked Patna zonal IG to inquire into the matter. Based on his findings, the state police headquarters will initiate further action,” Bihar’s additional director general of police SK Singhal said today. Rats have been accused of gulping down around nine lakh litres of confiscated liquor stored in police stations.
The story about the rats nibbling off the metal caps of confiscated alcohol and then guzzling down the intoxicants came to fore at a meeting of police inspectors held in Patna on Tuesday.
Patna’s senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaj was just stunned when told that almost all stock of confiscated liquor has been guzzled down by the rats.
However, the BJP smells a larger conspiracy behind the “rats-gulping-moonshine” story and has demanded actions against the culprits.
“The government should initiate action in this regard and catch the ‘liquor-obsessed’ rats,” said Bihar opposition leader and BJP leader Prem Kumar.
As per an official report, authorities seized around 900,000 litres of alcohol in the past 13 months since the total prohibition was enforced in the state in April last year.
They included 567,857 litres of foreign liquor, 310,492 litres of country-made liquor and 11,371 litres of beer.
Courtesy: The Statesman, India
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