Liquor worth Rs 1 crore seized from Gopalganj

PATNA: Police seized over 1,000 cartons of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) worth Rs 1 crore and arrested three peddlers in Gopalganj district, close to Bihar-Uttar Pradesh (UP) border, on Tuesday.
The liquor bottles were hidden in gunny bags stuffed with husk to hoodwink cops. Acting on a tip off, a police team intercepted two trucks near Jalalpur interstate police checkpost around 3am and seized the consignment booked from Punjab.Three peddlers, identified as Guruvachan Singh, Jagdish Singh, both stated to be residents of Punjab, and Sonu Kumar, a native of Bareilly in UP, were arrested.
Gopalganj superintendent of police (SP) Rashid Zaman said as many as 1,040 cartons of IMFL (10,153 litres) were confiscated from the trucks bearing the registration number of Punjab at Jalalpur checkpost on national highway-28 during checking of vehicles. The arrested men, however, did not reveal the names of the people who had booked the consignment from Punjab.
“Police officials are trying to ascertain the links of the local liquor suppliers with those operating in Punjab. We will also send a team to Punjab to gather more information about the racket,” Zaman told this newspaper over phone from Gopalganj.
Earlier, in May, police had seized a huge consignment of liquor and arrested two suppliers from the Bihar-UP border. It was booked from Haryana for East Champaran district.
“We are keeping a close watch on the bordering areas, which are considered to be vulnerable for supply of liquor from outside Bihar,” the SP said, adding vigil on the border had been intensified after the Lok Sabha elections.
Another consignment of IMFL booked from Uttarakhand was seized by the Gopalganj police on May 20. It was to be delivered to a supplier of Muzaffarpur. Mostly the consignment is brought to Bihar through UP border from Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakahand. “There have been instances when the trucks carrying liquor were found abandoned on the national highway,” the SP said.
Two policemen, including Baikunthpur station house officer Lakshmi Narayan Mahto, were put under suspension and departmental proceedings initiated against them after they were caught selling confiscated liquor from the police station on October 4, 2018. Later, a case was registered against them for being involved in illegal liquor trade.
Gopalganj located on the Bihar-UP border has become a major illegal transit point for liquor smuggling ever since the state was declared dry in April, 2016.