Patna: Six top officials of a private power distribution company in Bihar have been dismissed from service after they were caught consuming alcohol on the office premises in Bihar in violation of the liquor law enforced last year.

The sacked officials, who included the area manager and five engineers, were working with Essel Power Distribution Private Limited, which was granted the contract to ensure distribution of electricity in Muzaffarpur, a key north Bihar town 80km from Patna.

The company has been carrying out the task since 2012. As per reports, a group of villagers had gone to the company office to register a complaint about the frequent power tripping in the areas when they saw the officials engaged in drinking at a power substation and hurriedly informed the police.

Soon the police rushed to the spot and arrested all of them and were produced in the court of the local chief judicial magistrate who sent them to jail.

Reports said the party had been thrown by an employee of Ashutosh Enterprises, a subcontractor hired by the company to lay cables in the town.

Once the news of their arrest reached the company, it immediately fired all of them. “The company has sacked all the erring employees and is also taking steps to ensure such things don’t take place in future,” Rajesh Kumar Chaudhary, a spokesperson of the company, told media on Saturday. The incident had taken place on Wednesday. The company has also terminated the contract of the Ashutosh Enterprises.

Bihar enforced total prohibition in April last year under which the sale, manufacture and consumption of alcohol in the state has been totally banned. The new Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act provides for arrest of all adult members in case of recovery of liquor from home and collective fine in the event of habitual violation of the law.

The state government seized a total of 514,639 litres of foreign liquor, 11,371 litres of beer and 310,292 litres of country-made liquor last year since the total prohibition was imposed in the state. The police also arrested around 45,000 drunkards during the same period.

Reports added the Excise and the police together conducted 216595 raids and registered 40,078 cases in connection with the violation of liquor laws.