Bihar gets high on liquor from Delhi

New Delhi: With Bihar going completely dry, the railway authorities have seized around 1,000 liquor bottles from bootleggers from the city's platforms during the past two weeks. Reports suggest that bootleggers have been purchasing liquor from Haryana and smuggling it through Delhi to Bihar.

According to R.N. Singh, the divisional railway manager (DRM), Delhi division of Northern Railway, a new trend has been noticed wherein bootleggers have started smuggling in recent time after Bihar imposed complete prohibition last year. "Seeing the new trend, directions have been issued to the Railway Protection Force (RPF) to keep a strict vigil on bootleggers," said Mr Singh.  

Shashi Kumar, the senior divisional security commissioner of RPF, told this newspaper that in past two weeks around 1,000 bottle of different sizes and brands of liquor worth several lakh rupees were seized from different stations in the capital and surrounding areas.

"These bootleggers travel in groups. Mostly they smuggle, quarter and half bottles of India Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), which are hidden inside a bag to mislead the security personnel. Recently, an alert RPF personnel apprehended and caught people trying to smuggle liquor to Bihar," added Mr Kumar.

The maximum seizures of liquor were reported from Anand Vihar railway station, from where several Bihar-bound trains originate. Bootleggers board these trains with the illegal consignment at stations such as Ghaziabad and the like surrounding the national capital.

In a bid to control the smuggling of liquor to Bihar, a special vigil has been put on Bihar-bound trains and all suspicious luggage is being thoroughly checked, he added.