Jan 15, 2019
The Muzaffarpur range police authority on Monday suspended the SHO and an ASI of Motipur police station while removing and replacing the entire staff — there were 20 police personnel including the station house officer (SHO) — for failing to curb the rampant trade and smuggling of liquor in the police station area since prohibition was enforced in Bihar in 2016. Worse: The staffs, especially the suspended SHO, Amitabh Kumar and ASI America Prasad, have been found indulging in selling the banned fluid from their official residences and even police station premises.
Senior officials who raided the police station and SHO’s official residence on Monday, recovered a huge stock of more than 300 cartons of Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) bottles. Value of the bottles is yet to be ascertained.
The entire team, from SHO to constables, was asked to report to the police lines after preliminary investigation revealed their links with illegal liquor traders. The order means that the punished personnel were unlikely to get active policing duty in the near future.
Officials said that the personnel posted at the police station had “allowed to let go a huge consignment of liquor” recently. A probe into the allegations found complicity of the entire station staffs.
In last few months, the senior authority had been receiving several complaints against the police station staffs for allegedly hobnobbing with the liquor mafia and giving them ample leeway to carry on the illegal trade. While other police stations were doing a better job acting on tip offs and seizing the smuggled liquor, the Motipur police recorded negligible seizure in the recent past despite getting concrete tip offs from spies and senior officials.
Muzaffarpur zonal IG Sunil Kumar, who personally visited the police station along with range DIG and SSP after excise department officials raided the SHO’s house, said that unaccounted Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) bottles have been recovered from Kumar’s officials residence, which seems the largest recovery from the house of any police officer so far.
IG said that the SHO had a nexus with liquor Mafiosi and had been going soft with them. “We have found that he was indulging in sale of liquor from the police station and home. Continued dip in recovery of liquor also laid credence to the charges on him”, IG added.
The SHO of Motipur police station Amitabh Kumar and ASI Amerika Prasad will now be face departmental proceedings and might face thee harshest of actions.
According to reports, the excise department officials have also recovered cash and incriminating documents, which could reveal how deep the nexus was between him and the liquor smugglers. The SHO , who had fled the scene during the raids, still remains absconding. A case under section of Bihar excise act would be lodged against him, excise officials said.
The Bihar police have been under fire for “tardy implementation” of the prohibition law following regular seizures of truckloads of alcohol coming from other states and allegations of its easy availability in the black market in many parts of the state.
Highlights:
February 3, 2017 All cops at Beur police station were transferred following complaints they were shielding bootleggers.
June 7, 2017 Entire staff of Jakkanpur police station were removed for their alleged complicity with bootleggers after four men were caught drinking at a private nursing home under the station’s jurisdiction.
October 3, 2018 Gopalganj police arrested Baikunthpur SHO L N Mahto and SI Sudhir Kumar for allegedly smuggling liquor from the police station premises.
Source : Hindustantimes
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