Amid outrage and widespread action against illegal country liquor traffickers after the Bihar hooch tragedy, the police on Tuesday seized foreign and country liquor from the house of a JDU leader on Station Road in Chhapra’s Madhaura Nagar area.
Police conducted the raid based on a tip and detained a woman for questioning.
The house from which the liquor was confiscated belongs to JDU’s state leader Kameshwar Singh. The liquor was allegedly seized from the tenant who had rented the house. Sources said that the JDU leader does not live in the house. A man named saroj Saroj Mahato and his wife rented the accommodation and live there as tenants.
After the raid, the police took the woman into custody.
Inspector Rakesh Kumar Singh said that they received a tip that illegal liquor was being stored in the house. “During the raid we found two bottles of foreign liquor and country liquor.
Apart from the police, there was also a team of excise department present during the raid. Kameshwar Singh is a resident of Mashrak, where the maximum number of deaths have occurred due to spurious liquor. He has a house in Marhaura. Kameshwar Singh is a member of JDU State Council.
Around 60 people died in Bihar’s Saran district last week after consuming spurious liquor, making it the biggest hooch tragedy in the state since it went dry in April 2016. The BJP, however, claimed that over 100 deaths have occurred due to spurious country liquor.
Earlier, Isuapur, Saran district, Station House Officer Sanjay Ram, Security guard Hari Rai, officer Krisha Singh, the security guard of Ramnath Manjhi of Saran’s Masrakh police station were suspended over the deaths. The SIT formed to investigate the deaths due to spurious liquor in Chhapra, Siwan, and Begusarai in Bihar has arrested liquor mafia Anil Singh in the case. It has also arrested 271 liquor traders under Operation Clean. Besides this, 6,335 litres of liquor and 21 vehicles have been seized so far.