Illegal liquor seized from bullock cart in Bihar; smugglers flee, oxen detained

People in ‘dry state’ Bihar time and again come up with novel, innovative methods for easy access to alcohol. The latest is bullock carts, on a long list that has tankers, tractors, trucks, buses, cars and even motorcycles.

Excise officials in Gopalganj district were in for a surprise when they recovered huge quantities of liquor bottles being ferried past them on a bullock cart. It would have otherwise gone unnoticed, but they suspected something fishy.

However, the smugglers managed to escape. “We have recovered Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) worth ₹5 lakh from the bullock cart. This is the first time we found this method of smuggling,” excise superintendent Amritesh Kumar Jha said.

With the smugglers fleeing, the excise officials seized the cart, two oxen and the smuggled liquor.

“The bullock cart, the oxen and the seized liquor were produced before the special excise court on Thursday and the court directed that the oxen be handed over to someone to be taken care of,” the official said.

Earlier, smuggled liquor bottles were seized from under vegetables in trucks, tankers, ambulances, milk canisters on bikes or oil tanks, apart from trains and boats.

Bihar was declared a dry state in April 2016 with the Nitish Kumar government imposing a total ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol, including IMFL.