PATNA: In a novel initiative, the Bihar government has decided to give relaxations to the people caught in a drunken state if they disclosed the names of the bootleggers.
State excise commissioner Kartikey Dhaji said on Monday that those who would disclose the names of the suppliers who had provided them alcohol would not be sent to jail.
He, however, said that they would be released after payment of penalty. The move was aimed at reducing the burden on the state jails which had a number of prisoners arrested in prohibition cases.
Joint secretary Krishna Kumar Singh clarified that the people caught while consuming alcohol would be given relaxations if they revealed the names of the liquor smuggler and subsequent operation led to recovery of the banned commodity.
A decision to this effect was taken at a review meeting chaired by additional chief secretary KK Pathak with officials of the Prohibition and Excise department on Monday. The instructions were issued to all the excise superintendents and the police officials of the district concerned to implement the new order.
The joint secretary Singh said that the exercise was aimed at reducing the burden on the state jails, which had a number of prisoners arrested in prohibition cases. Over 3.5 lakh people have been arrested and forwarded to judicial custody for violating the new prohibition law in the state, he added.
The excise commissioner Dhanji said that the informers whose identity would be kept secret would also get legal assistance from the government. He admitted that the majority of the people languishing in jail were arrested on the charges of being involved in the consumption of alcohol in violation of the new prohibition law.
The state government had received flak from the chief justice of India for a huge number of bail petitions pending in high court and lower courts in prohibition-related cases in Bihar. The opposition parties in the state also raised their concern over a number of people languishing in jail.
The state government recently deployed helicopters and drones to trace the locations where illicit liquor was being manufactured and subsequently supplied across the state. The raids have yielded tangible results.
The state came under total prohibition in April 2016.