Bihar: Man in possession of liquor tied to tree, thrashed

A new kind of vigitalism is on display in Bihar. A man, Rajesh was tied to a tree and brutally thrashed after he was caught carrying five litres of illegal country made liquor in Saran district of Bihar.

The act which was filmed involved a local vigilante group Navyuvak Sangh that comprises of youth below age of 18 and policemen. In the video, a policeman is seen reigning lathis on the liquor carrier. Members of the vigilante group first stripped the man to his undergarments and later the police thrashed him blue and black.

"We stopped the man and tied him to the tree for carrying liquor. We also beat him and later called the police. We are a group working on prohibition since 2013 in the area," said the head of the group Amit Kumar Singh.

However, the family has questioned the liquor vigilantism.

FAMILY REACTS

"Whosoever has beaten up my son has done a wrong thing. Police does not have the right to thrash someone. If my son has committed any crime, the Court will punish him. My husband when he was alive was involved in illegal liquor trade but not my son," said Rajesh's mother Meena Devi.

Rajesh's wife Chanda said, "The barbaric act of the police was uncalled for and he should have been arrested if he committed any crime. Beating him by tying to the tree was not right."

Liquor vigilantism in Saran was the first incident pertaining to violation of prohibition imposed in Bihar five months back. However, there has been no stopping to the smuggling of liquor into Bihar from neighboring Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The modus operandi employed by the smugglers are unique and new.

ALSO READ: Bihar: Liquor smuggled in empty gas cylinders

BLACK MARKETING

On Wednesday, the Nawada police arrested two persons who were found smuggling liquor into Bihar from Jharkhand. The arrested persons were smuggling country made liquor in an empty cooking gas cylinder. They cut the base of the cylinder and stocked several pouches of liquor.

On Tuesday, the police found a peddler who was selling liquor packed in Frooti packets.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also admitted that black marketing of liquor was taking place.

"Today, people are ready to take risk as they know that a bottle of liquor costing Rs 500 would fetch them Rs 5,000. These people think that if they are not caught, they will earn huge profit," said Nitish Kumar.

ALSO READ: Bihar: Government left red faced as excise inspector Deepak Kumar gets bail

HOOCH DEATHS & RECOVERY

In some instances, people are consuming spurious liquor resulting in deaths like the case in Gopalganj in August. 21 lives were lost in when adulterated liquor in homeopathic bottles was consumed by locals.

The Excise department admits that despite prohibition, there has been no stopping to liquor recovery in the state. In fact, arrests and seizures in August were the highest in last five months.

According to figures released by the excise department between April 1 and August 31:

Totals raids carried: 85,171
Total prosecutions: 13,190
Total arrests: 13,839
Persons jailed: 13,805
Country made liquor recovered: 9,2291 liters
Spirit recovered: 26,524 liters
Foreign liquor recovered: 11,679 liters
Beer recovered: 9,763 liters

"The recovery and arrests in connection with liquor law has been highest in the month of August. On a daily basis huge recovery is taking place," said Aditya Kumar Das, Excise Commissioner.

CRIME POST PROHIBITION

The state government has said that there has been a noticeable dip in crime rate in the state post prohibition. However, the Opposition continues to target the government over rising crime despite prohibition. Quoting figures from the Bihar police records, the opposition alleged that cases of rape have increased by 55 per cent in June in comparison to April this year, there has been an increase of 22 per cent in cognizable offences and 14 per cent increase in murder cases in the state from April onwards, dacoit cases increased by 52 per cent and riots cases rose by 59 per cent since April this year.

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