Patna: A drunk man in Bihar hacked his young wife and two children to death a day after chief minister Nitish Kumar declared a liquor ban in the state.

The ban will come into effect on April 1, 2016.

The incident took place at Rajpur village in southern Bihar’s Gaya district on Friday night when most of the villagers had gone to sleep.

Police said Manoj Das, who had a habit of drinking excessively, returned home late and had a bitter quarrel with his wife Sunaina Devi, 32.

After the row, the family went to bed but the accused remained awoke.

Reports said shortly past midnight when everyone in the house was asleep, Das came out of his bed, picked an axe in his hand and attacked, one by one, his wife and three children.

The wife and two children aged eight and six died on the spot, while another child aged 10 is battling for life at a local government hospital.

“The man eliminated most of his family after a quarrel with his wife, who objected to him returning late in an inebriated condition. The police have arrested the accused person,” the local Senior Superintendent of Police, Gaya, Manu Maharaj told the media on Saturday adding further investigations were on.

The incident comes barely a day after the state government ordered a ban on liquor sale in Bihar from the new financial year, keeping his pre-poll promises.

“The state government is bound to suffer serious financial loss by way of the order but we won’t compromise with the increasing cases of domestic violence due to liquor consumption. Liquor is destroying homes in Bihar. We will go for other ways to make up the loss,” Kumar said while announcing the liquor ban in the state.

The state has been earning billions of rupees by way of sale of liquor. In the last 2014-2015 financial year, the state government earned Rs30.66 billion (Dh1.68 billion), followed by Rs30.17 billion in 2013-2014, Rs20.43 billion in 2012-13, Rs20.04 billion in 2011-12, Rs10.54 billion in 2010-11 and Rs10.09 billion in 2009-19 while in the current financial year (2015-16), the government fixed the earning target of Rs40 billion, as per an official report.