The arrest of an MBA degree holder, who had taken to smuggling liquor after quitting his job, on Sunday has once again highlighted how the lure of lucre has hit even educated people in dry Bihar.

Pratik Kumar (33), who had received his MBA from a reputed Pune institute and who is the son of a government doctor posted in Mokama, and Raushan alias Pawan were caught from the Didarganj checkpost on the eastern fringe of Patna. They were coming from Jharkhand.

"Based on a tip-off, the Didarganj police caught Pratik and Pawan, who were travelling in different SUVs," said Didarganj police station house officer Mritunjay Kumar. "Fourteen cartons of liquor containing around 168 bottles were kept in the boot of Pawan's vehicle."

Pratik was bringing the liquor from Chauparan in Hazaribagh district and was to deliver the consignment to his select customers, police sources said.

After his MBA, Pratik had briefly worked with a private company and later started his own organisation named Jago Grahak Jago. Once prohibition came into force, he sniffed the opportunity to make a quicker buck.

Police said liquor smugglers usually sell bottles at thrice their selling price in a non-prohibition state.

"Mostly, liquor smugglers opt for cheap brands and going by the seizures made in the recent past, they purchase IMFL (Indian-made foreign liquor) priced in the range of Rs 500 to 600 for a quarter and sell it for something between Rs 1,500 and 2,000," said a police officer.

Profit margins in liquor smuggling have skyrocketed since prohibition came into force around five months ago. A carton of liquor (12 bottles) can fetch Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 in profit.

Pratik's arrest came a day after the Siwan police arrested Manoj Kumar Gupta (29), a contractual teacher at a government primary school, who was into smuggling liquor to supplement his meagre monthly income of around Rs 12,000. In July, the Patliputra police had arrested Gopal Kumar (22) and Brajesh Pathak (23), who were in private jobs and were preparing for competitive exams. The lure of making a fast buck througnh smuggling liquor had proved to be their undoing as well.