Patna: Six persons, including a senior RJD leader, were arrested from a hotel at Goria Toli near Patna junction on Wednesday night, allegedly for violating the provisions of the new excise law.

Acting on a tip-off, a team from the Gandhi Maidan police station raided a hotel and searched a room in which six persons were found to be consuming liquor.

Some empty bottles were found in the room while 59 filled up liquor bottleswere recovered during the raid.

City superintendent of police (central) D. Amarkesh said on Thursday that the liquor was smuggled from Jharkhand and subsequently delivered to a select group of alcoholics in Patna.

Vishal Kumar, who runs a grocery shop in Shivpuri under the jurisdiction of S.K. Puri police station, used to stock the consignment.

Vishal's associate, whom the police identified as Ripu, used to book the consignment from Jharkhand.

"The group has a list of alcoholics who supplied them the liquor on demand. Obviously they charged double the actual price of alcohol," Amarkesh pointed out.

The group, mostly hailing from Jehanabad district in central Bihar, had engaged students preparing for different competitive examinations in the illegal trade of bootlegging.

The students earned a good profit through bootlegging, the City SP revealed.

The arrested persons were identified as Raju Yadav, Sanjeet Kumar, Sunny Prasad, Amarnath Singh, Amarnath Kumar and Deepak Kumar. While Raju, Sujeet and Sunny are stated to be residents of Goria Toli, Deepak hails from Dariyapur.

Amarnath Singh belongs to Rupaspur near Danapur and Amarnath Kumar is a resident of Rukanpura in the capital.

"A case under relevant sections of the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act 2016 has been lodged with the Gandhi Maidan police station against the six arrested persons," Amarkesh said.

The breathalyser test confirmed that the six had consumed alcohol.

All the arrested persons were produced in the court, which remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days. Raju happens to be the general secretary of the RJD.