Patna: Smugglers in Bihar have turned to innovative ways to transport liquor, amid a statewide prohibition.
The state imposed a total ban on the sale, consumption and storage of alcohol in April this year, with leaders across the political spectrum supporting the ban.
In a recent incident, police caught a gang which had been running an illegal liquour supply business from a Hindu temple in Munger district.
The gang would store liquor bottles in a bunker — dug inside the temple dedicated to the deity Durga — and then stealthily supply alcohol to clients, police said.
Police have arrested a woman in this connection.
“The bunker was constructed in such a way that it gave the impression of a marble floor. When we removed the marble plate, it led us to a [room] which was being used for storing liquor bottles as well as illegal arms,” the local district superintendent of police Aashish Bharti told the media.
Elsewhere, police arrested two people in Hajipur, Vaishali district, who were carrying liquor in milk containers.
Officers said the gang had been illegally transporting liquour in containers meant for supplying milk.
The ‘ingenious mind’ of criminals was very much on display again on Saturday when police arrested two people suspected of using a cash-in-transit- van, bearing the sticker of a nationalised bank, to transport liquor.
Acting on a tip-off, the police team searched a cash van in Darbhnaga district and seized 155 cartons of foreign liquor.
In September, police had arrested a man identified as Avinah Kumar alias Monika Kumari, from Patna, who used to run a liquor business dressed up as woman.
His modus operandi was quite peculiar.
He would dress up as woman, wearing a variety of saris, jewellery, eyeliners and glossy lipsticks, and did his business without raising suspicion.
The same month the police arrested two persons who were smuggling liquor using empty gas cylinders.
The duo had cut the base of the cylinder with perfection to store liquor inside and transport them from one place to another on cycles as none suspected them until being caught by the police.
Yet another group of ingenious persons have been arrested by the police smuggling liquor bottles in vegetable bags or bike dickies.
Liquor continues to flows in “dry” Bihar despite a formal ban imposed on their sale and consumption. As per an official report, more than 161,820 litres of alcohol have been seized during the raids conducted by the police to enforce liquor ban till September this year. Of the seized bottles, majority of them were foreign liquor.
