Bihar police arrest six men for selling liquor; drunken guards let them escape

Six persons arrested by the Bihar police on charges of possessing and selling liquor escaped when the personnel guarding them dozed off after reportedly consuming the liquor they had seized. The incident took place in Motihari of East Champaran district on Wednesday.

Bihar became a dry state in April 2016. District excise officials arrested six persons from three locations near the Indo-Nepal border on Tuesday, and seized 15 bottles of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL).

The men were kept in a lock-up at the excise department building in Motihari. Six Special Auxiliary Police (SAP) jawans were put on guard duty. The accused were to be produced before a local court on Thursday.

The arrested persons were Prahlad Mahto, Hemlal Mahto, Mukesh Patel, Amlesh Mian, Mohammed Haroon and Saddam Hussain. Taking full advantage of the slumbering cops and the darkness, the men broke the iron grill of their prison’s window and escaped. District excise department officials charged the SAP jawans with negligence. “They might have gulped down some of the seized liquor and dozed off. That’s how the arrested men were able to escape,” said an excise department official.

“We do not have a count of the bottles recovered. But this was sheer negligence. We have asked the district magistrate for stern action,” Keshav Prasad, Motihari excise superintendent, told journalists. Two or three bottles may have been consumed, sources said.