Patna: Rohtas police on Thursday launched a special drive against liquor brewing and nabbed a sarpanch from Ghusia Khurd panchayat under Bikramganj block of the district for allegedly being involved in the illegal trade.

Acting on a tip-off that liquor brewing was going on unabated in rural areas, a police team carried out a raid at Redia village under the jurisdiction of Bikramganj police station and arrested Ghusia Khurd panchayat sarpanch Radheshyam Singh.

The police seized a number of containers full of country liquor made of mahua and subsequently destroyed them on the spot.

A complaint was lodged against Radheshyam Singh with the Bikramganj police station for violating provisions of the Bihar Excise and Prohibition Act 2016.

Thursday's raid followed the seizure of over 1,800 pouches of Jharkhand-made country liquor from a luxury car in Nandanibigha village, falling under the jurisdiction of Dehri town police station on Tuesday night.

The seized liquor was being transported to Dehri-on-Sone in Rohtas from neighbouring Jharkhand's Palamu district to be delivered to local bootleggers identified as Dhiru Gupta and Sipahi Sah, said to be residents of Niranjanbigha village in Rohtas district.

A police officer posted at the Dehri town police station said raids were underway to arrest the bootleggers, who managed to escape during the vehicle-checking drive. The car was seized for being used in transportation of alcohol from Jharkhand, he said.

About five months ago, four persons had died after consuming spurious liquor at Danwar village under the jurisdiction of Kachchwa police station in Rohtas district.

Taking a serious note of the incident, the state government had ordered an investigation by the inspector-general (Patna zone) N.H. Khan.

Khan visited the village and later submitted a detailed report to the police headquarters, which forwarded it to the office of the chief secretary. However, only two chowkidars - Sudama Singh and Raghuvansh Yadav - were dismissed from service after they were found guilty of negligence of duty.

IG Khan had probed the role of the Bikramganj sub-divisional police officer, Neeraj Kumar, and inspector Anil Kumar. However, the report is still pending and no action had been taken against the officers concerned.

Sources said disciplinary action was initiated against then assistant excise commissioner Kishore Sah on the basis of the IG's report. "But no action had been taken against other concerned officials of the district," RIT activist Narayan Giri said.

Rohtas-based RTI activist Narayan Giri had sought information from the state administration about action taken against the erring police officials and those of the excise and prohibition department in the wake of the death of four persons.

"Liquor is easily available in the district. The illegal trade is flourishing in the district with the tacit support of the police and the excise department officials," alleged Giri.