Patna: Over 33,000 bottles of India-made foreign liquor (IMFL) worth Rs 1 crore were seized from a truck in Rohtas district, around165km northeast of Patna, on Sunday.

The consignment booked from Rajasthan was to be delivered to some illicit liquor traders of Nokha block in Rohtas district. The traders having political links were on the radar of the police ever since prohibition was enforced in the state in April 2016.

Acting on a tip-off, a police team led by Dehri-sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Anwar Javed conducted a raid at Mahadeva under the jurisdiction of Dehri town police station on Sunday and seized the consignment when it was being offloaded from the truck.

On seeing the police, those engaged in offloading the liquor bottles managed to escape, the driver of the contained identified as Rukmara was apprehended from the spot. Rukmara, a native of Rajasthan's Barmer region, revealed to the police that the consignment was booked by one Om Prakash Choudhary.

Om Prakash, the husband of sarpanch of Rampur panchayat, was operating in connivance with Vikas Choudhary, stated to be the mukhiya of Dakshini Baraw under the jurisdiction of Nokha police station in Rohtas district. Both Om Prakash and Vikas were absconding, police said.

Dehri SDPO Javed said a special team was set up to launch a crackdown on illicit liquor smugglers on the directive of Rohtas superintendent of police Satyaveer Singh. "The SP was monitoring the operation, which led to the recovery of a 33,373 bottles of Rajasthan-manufactured IMFL," Javed told The Telegraph.

The SDPO said efforts were on to arrest the liquor smugglers. "We are working on the information provided by the driver of the seized container. He, however, admitted that Om Prakash was earlier arrested for his involvement in supply of liquor and explosive materials.

On June 23 this year, the police had confiscated over 544 cartons of Rajasthan-manufactured foreign liquor from an abandoned truck on the National Highway-30 in Rohtas district. Later an FIR was lodged with the Dinara police station.

Though the police had claimed then that the liquor smuggler would be arrested soon, no action has been taken against him till date.

"Only the drivers and co-drivers are arrested by the police. The big fishes are still at large," said a resident of Dehri-on-Sone.