PATNA: In the first incident of its kind, police in Bihar arrested five youths on Monday for posting on Facebook a photograph showing them having a drinking session.
Little did Vicky Kumar, in mid-20s, know that policemen would knock at his door in the forenoon for something as innocuous as having liquor with his friends at his home in Laheri in Nalanda district the previous night. But in Bihar, where the JD(U)-led coalition government of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar
brought total prohibition into force eight months ago, consuming, possessing and trading in all kinds of alcoholic liquor has been illegal and leads to arrest. Incidentally, Nalanda happens to be Nitish Kumar’s home district.
“Vicky Kumar and four of his friends who had attended the drinking session have been arrested after they were identified from the photograph posted on the Facebook wall of one of them. Also a bottle of liquor was found from Vicky during the arrest,” said Nalanda SP Kumar Ashish.
A medical examination of all the five youths that was conducted after their arrest reportedly confirmed that they had consumed liquor. One of the youths arrested is from Patna.
Sources said when police officials monitoring the implementation of prohibition in Bihar came across this photograph on Facebook, they alerted Laheri police station. The arrested youths would be charged not only with drinking liquor despite prohibition but also with publicising drinking through the social media.
In another incident in Nalanda district itself, a team comprising police and excise department officials on Friday seized 90 bottles of foreign liquor from a man apparently engaged in liquor trade. Despite strict vigil by the authorities, storing, smuggling and consumption of alcoholic liquor still continues across the state.