SI held in Muzaffarpur for striking ‘deal’ with liquor mafia

PATNA: Braj Kishore Yadav, a sub-inspector of police posted as SHO incharge of Karja police station in Muzaffarpur district, was arrested on Saturday for seeking a bribe from a liquor smuggler.
Yadav, a 2009-batch SI, was caught by the district anti-liquor task force from the Kachhi Pakki area on NH-28 while making a deal to allow a truck bringing in liquor from outside the state.
Muzaffarpur SSP Jayant Kant said the police officer in question reached the spot after being tipped off about a truck transporting Indian made foreign liquor. Instead of taking action, the cop demanded Rs 2.5 lakh from the driver of the vehicle to release the truck. The SI was nabbed by the anti-liquor task force and brought to a police station for questioning.
Later, an FIR was lodged against him and the driver of the truck. Sources said Yadav drove 15 km from the police station to strike the deal to release the liquor-laden truck.
The SSP said around 4,400 litres of alcohol were seized from the truck. Raids are on to arrest others involved in the illicit liquor trade defying the prohibition law, he added.
Yadav was earlier put under suspension and departmental proceedings initiated against him after a video showing him extorting money from truck operators went viral on social media. He was then posted at Sadar police station in Muzaffarpur.
This is not an isolated case in the district. Earlier, Kumar Amitabh, then SHO of Motipur police station in Muzaffarpur district, was put under suspension after a huge consignment was seized from his residence in 2019.
Surprisingly, Amitabh, who is closely associated with an influential politician, is still at large. An FIR was lodged against him under relevant sections of the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act 2016.
Meanwhile, a chowkidar, Ratnesh Kumar, was arrested in inebriated condition from Kolhua under Ahiyapur police station in the district on Saturday.
The action against the sub-inspector assumed significance in the wake of the killing of a police officer Dinesh Ram allegedly by the liquor mafia in the Sitamarhi district earlier this week.