Milk tanker carrying 1,182 litres of liquor seized in Bihar’s Purnia

During a meeting on Tuesday chaired by chief minister Nitish Kumar, the cabinet approved a change in the Bihar Prohibition and Excise (Amendment) Act, 2022

Bihar’s Purnia police on Tuesday seized a milk tanker allegedly carrying liquor, police said.

(Representative/File Photo)

Acting on a tip-off, Purnia police seized a huge quantity of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) on NH-57 from a tanker allegedly belonging to Sudha dairy on Tuesday evening.

Sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Pushkar Kumar said, “During a routine patrolling, Kasba police saw a pick-up van of Sudha dairy standing on NH-57 and after being searched, much to the astonishment, police stumbled onto a huge quantity of IMFL instead of milk.”

“1,182 litres of IMFL was seized besides 48 empty plastic milk crates” the SDPO said, adding “Police have started a probe to find out if the tanker actually belonged to Sudha dairy or whether it was designed by liquor smugglers.”

Liquor smuggling has been rampant along the Indo-Nepal border despite the patrolling by anti-liquor task force (ALTF) teams.

“Seemanchal has been a conduit for liquor smugglers due to its vicinity with West Bengal and Jharkhand borders besides it shares a border with Nepal,” a police officer without disclosing his identity said.

In March, IMFL concealed in the coffin was being carried in an ambulance when the excise officials caught it and a day after, a huge quantity of IMFL was recovered from a septic tank specially designed to conceal liquor in the Saharsa district.

Bihar has been a dry state since 2016 after chief minister Nitish Kumar-led government imposed a ban on the sale, transportation and consumption of liquor.

Meanwhile, during a meeting on Tuesday chaired by CM Kumar, the cabinet approved a change in the Bihar Prohibition and Excise (Amendment) Act, 2022, PTI reported.

The changes will allow concerned authorities to release vehicles carrying liquor on payment of a far lower rate of a penalty than that stipulated earlier.

“The authorities can now release vehicles carrying liquor after payment of either 10% of the insured value of the vehicle or Rs.5 lakh as penalty by the legal owner after consulting the judicial authority,” PTI quoted additional chief secretary S Siddharth as saying.

(with PTI inputs)