Bihar: Liquor mafia holds police, excise team hostage, 14 arrested
Darpan News Desk IANS, 06 Apr, 2023 11:22 AM
Patna, April 6 (IANS) At least 14 people have been arrested for holding hostage sleuths of district and excise department who had gone to raid liquor mafia in Bihar's Bagha police district.
The accused also misbehaved with female constables, an official said.
On Wednesday night, a team of district police and excise department went to Dharauli Dhangar Toli village and arrested a woman, Gayatri Devi, along with four liters of country-made liquor.
The sleuths have taken Gayatri in police van to go to the police station. However, the villagers attacked them and managed to release the accused. They also held hostage the entire team headed by inspector Prabhunath Singh.
When senior police officers received the information, they sent a heavy contingent of police force from Patkhauli outpost, Naurangia police station and Laukaria police station in the village and managed to rescue the team.
"We have registered an FIR against Gayatri Devi and other accused. Fourteen persons were arrested in this connection," said an officer of Laukaria police station.
In an appeal, the Chief Minister said the firing incidents at Behbal Kalan and Kotakpura in 2015 along with the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in Bargari had bruised the psyche of every human being especially the Sikh community.
With these arrests, the police have also solved 30 cases of snatching and theft and recovered 23 snatched mobile phones, several Aadhaar cards, pan cards, debit cards, four two-wheelers and metro cards from the possession of the gang members.
The decision of organising the mahapanchayat was taken in a meeting of the SKM, held in Haryana's Kurukshetra on Thursday, where office-bearers of the farmers' organisations from many states including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab participated.
The development came a day after the police arrested a juvenile and recovered 15 packets of heroin, weighing 15 kg, and Rs 8.40 lakh drug money from his possession in Amritsar.
The arrested accused has been identified as Vijay Kumar, a.k.a. Toti, while his three aides have been identified as Amardeep Singh, Sooraj Singh and Rahul Lahoch, all residents of Jalandhar. The main accused, Vijay, has been facing 18 criminal cases pertaining to drugs, illegal weapons, kidnapping and extortion.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has arrested three persons, who were trying to smuggle 17.74 kg gold worth Rs 10.1 crore on a fishing boat, and threw it overboard when intercepted, an official said on Thursday.
