Patna: Patna police on Monday January 10 arrested seven persons for smuggling in liquor from neighbouring Jharkhand.
The police said that the kingpin of the smuggling racket is the son of a former block president of Raghopur in Vaishali District, who is still at large.
The accused kept the liquor consignment under tomatoes in a pick-up van which was escorted by a Mahindra Scorpio and Maruti Alto. The pick-up van was intercepted near Supan Chak under Fatuha police station in Patna, located on NH-30.
“We had installed a check-post at Supan Chak after receiving inputs about huge liquor consignment passing through this route. When we saw a pick-up van coming towards the check-post, we signalled the driver of the van to stop for checking. During checking, a huge quantity of tomatoes was found in the van. When we removed them, 258 cartons of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) worth Rs 22 lakh were found under the baskets,” said Manoj Kumar, SHO of Fatuha Police Station.
During a brief interrogation, the driver of the van revealed that six persons were escorting him in two cars.
“We immediately chased the two vehicles and nabbed the accused persons. At present, some districts in Jharkhand are supplying tomatoes to Bihar. The smugglers used this as a shield to smuggle in liquor,” Kumar said.
“Three of the arrested persons belong to Fatuha, while four are from Dhanbad. We have also seized Rs. 5.72 lakh in cash. The liquor is made in Arunachal Pradesh and it was purchased from Dhanbad. The Scorpio belongs to a person named Bablu Yadav, the son of former block president of Raghopur in Vaishali district,” Kumar said.
“Bablu was earlier booked in March 2021. On that occasion, he was involved in smuggling liquor hidden in boxes of mustard oil,” he said.
