Patna: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) arrested five youths and recovered 110 litres of India Made Foreign Liquor from the Patna-bound Shalimar-Patna Duronto Express on Friday night. The police, based on inputs, conducted a search operation on the Shalimar-Duronto Express and recovered the liquor.
Patna railway SP Ashok Kumar Singh said: "The railway police had a tip-off that a gang from Calcutta was carrying liquor and would deliver it to some persons between Mokama and Bakhtiyarpur after pulling the chain."
The seized liquor included tetra packs of whisky and beer bottles. The gang, which mostly comprised youngsters in the age group of 20 to 25 years were in the liquor smuggling business for the past few months and prior to this they had smuggled liquor from Bengal on several occasions.
The arrested youths confessed that they purchased the liquor from different areas in Calcutta. The youths are from Hajipur and Patna district and were in the liquor business to make quick money.
During the search operation in the train, the railway police recovered jewellery worth Rs 73 lakh from a man. The man identified as Sitaram Pal, a resident of West Medinipur district in Bengal, told the police that the jewellery belonged to him and he had valid documents of it. However, the police have handed over the jewellery to sales tax officials for verification.
In another development, the police recovered 129 pieces of swords from Goria Toli under the Kotwali police station area and arrested three persons. An officer said: "The police had inputs that before Muharram, a large consignment of swords were to be delivered in Patna. The police are interrogating Vishram Tiwari and Ramnanth Kumar from Siwan and Rakesh Mishra of Gopalganj from where they had brought the swords."
Huge haul
Excise officials seized 550 cartons of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) worth Rs 1 crore in Muzaffarpur district on Saturday following a tip-off. The liquor was recovered from a vehicle under Maniyari police station. The truck driver and cleaner fled.
