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Bihar police arrest bootleggers’ associates from Haryana in Muzaffarpur
Police said some of influential traders of IMFL from Haryana are running a big alcohol smuggling racket across the country with political patronage.
The Bihar police said Monday that one of its anti-liquor squads arrested four associates of bootleggers from Haryana late Sunday night who were on their way to bail them out of jail.
A team from the Ahiapur police station arrested the four men when they were approaching a roundabout on national highway 28. Police also seized their car.
Their associates had been arrested on Thursday from a tourist bus in the Aurai police station area. The police had also seized a large number of bottles of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL). The bus was heading towards Sitamarhi.
Deputy superintendent of police (town) Ram Naresh Paswan said that a team was deployed after a tip off.
“The team, led by station house officer of Ahiapur police station Sunil Kumar Razak set up barricades near Bairia roundabout. Every suspected vehicle was being checked minutely. Meanwhile, the driver of a car, bearing a Haryana registration number tried to flee after seeing the police barricades. Our team chased the car and took four persons including the driver into custody. They were taken to the police station and quizzed,” Paswan said.
The police officer claimed they had confessed their association with the smugglers who were arrested from the bus.
“They told the interrogating officers that they had come to get their associates out on bail. They also revealed some more facts about the modus operandi of alcohol smuggling in the dry states like Bihar and Gujarat. Some of the influential traders of IMFL from Haryana are running a big racket across the country with political patronage,” Paswan said.
The DSP also said that the information provided by the four men are being verified.
Meanwhile, a team of Bihar excise arrested Pushpindar Singh Dhariwal from SAS Nagar of Mohali in Punjab on Sunday and brought him to Muzaffarpur on transit remand. He was arrested in connection with two cases pending with the Brahmapura police station in Muzaffarpur and Majhi police station of Saran district.
A policeman on condition of anonymity said that Dhariwal has made many startling revelations. “He has confessed that he had sent more than 200 consignments of IMFL to Muzaffarpur since Bihar became a dry state. He has admitted to running a racket with his father and some local associates from Mohali. A strongman from western diara of Gandak in Muzaffarpur district is his partner in the state. Some others from Bihar are also purchasing IMFL from him. All payments are being made either in cash or through net banking. Even bitcoins are being used for illegal transactions.”
