A Jehanabad court sentenced two brothers to five years' rigorous imprisonment and fined them Rs 1 lakh each in the first conviction under the new dry law.

Also on Tuesday, a Begusarai court sentenced Agnu Sahni to a 10-year jail term and imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on him for storing liquor at his house in Kumbhi village. A police team seized 1,104 bottles of liquor from his house during a raid on April 12, 2016.

Jehanabad additional district and sessions judge Triloki Nath Tripathi held Mastan Manjhi and Painter Manjhi guilty under Section 37 B of the Excise and Prohibition Act 2016 and sentenced them to five years in jail. The duo were in court when the judgment was pronounced. Special public prosecutor (excise) Sanjay Kumar said the convicts would have to serve an additional year in jail if they failed to pay the fine.

Special public prosecutor Kumar said that Mastan Manjhi and Painter Manjhi, residents of Purbi Unta under the jurisdiction of Jehanabad town police station, were arrested in an inebriated condition near the office of the CMI-ML (Liberation) on May 29, 2017.

The breathalyser test conducted on the duo confirmed they had consumed alcohol in violation of new prohibition laws that came into effect in April last year. Two separate cases were registered against Mastan and Painter on the statement of Jehanabad excise inspector Rajiv Ranjan.

A senior lawyer of Jehanabad court, Surendra Prasad Sinha, said this is the first conviction in the state under the new excise Act. Sinha said the two convicts were daily wagers and an excise department team had arrested them while they were going home from work. The advocate said the medical report confirming presence of alcohol in their blood led to their conviction.

Authoritative source said that till May this year district officials had destroyed around 1.55 lakh litres out of 11.9 lakh litres of liquor seized.

Over 25,000 people are facing trial in different courts.

Statistics available with the prison directorate in Patna says that out of a little over 45,000 arrests, around 16,000 people were still lodged in 58 jails, including eight central jails in the state, under the new prohibition laws.

A majority had been granted bail, either from the local courts or Patna High Court.

In addition, 73 policemen have been punished for laxity in implementing the prohibition laws.