Anand ST Das By

PATNA: A Bihar BJP legislator’s son and four of his friends were arrested on charge of consuming alcohol, police said on Monday.

Vikas Kumar, the son of Siwan MLA Vyas Deo Prasad, and four of his friends were taken into custody at Vijaypur More under Mairwa police station on the Bihar-Uttar Pradesh border at about 10 PM on Sunday. The five men were returning home after attending a wedding ceremony, said police.

“Two bottles of liquor were also seized from the car that Vikas Kumar was driving. He and the four other occupants of the car were found to have consumed alcohol,” said Siwan SP Navin Chandra Jha. The arrests were made during a routine check of vehicles by a police team, he added.

The BJP legislator, however, denied that his son was drunk. “My son does not drink alcohol. I do not understand how he was found to have drunk,” said Vyas Deo Prasad.

Siwan’s BJP MP Om Prakash Yadav and some other leaders of the party reportedly met the SP and told him that the MLA’s son was not in the habit of drinking alcohol. “He (Vikas Kumar) is a simple youth, and he is never known to be in the habit of drinking,” said the MP to reporters.

Senior RJD leader Vikram Kunwar decried the BJP MP’s efforts to help a person accused of violating Bihar’s stringent anti-alcohol law. Consumption, sale and manufacture of alcohol have been strictly banned across Bihar since April 2016. More than 1.41 lakh people have been arrested so far for offences under the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016.

“Nobody who violates the prohibition law is spared, no matter whether the offender is the son or daughter of politicians,” said JD(U) spokesperson Ajay Alok.

This is the second incident of a BJP leader’s son being arrested on charge of consuming alcohol in Bihar. On April 22, Rahul Kumar Manjhi, he son of BJP MP from Gaya, Hari Manjhi, was arrested for consuming alcohol with his friends.