A woman bootlegger was arrested on Thursday, deflating Nitish Kumar's justification that prohibition was implemented to save women from their daily ordeal of dealing with drunk husbands.

Police intercepted middle-aged Ranju Devi and arrested her in Karbigahiya allegedly for violating the prohibition law. The police said she was about to deliver a consignment of alcohol to a person near a community hall. The police seized 78 bottles of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) from her possession. Her associate, however, managed to flee. Sources said bootleggers were using women in transporting consignments to avoid police checks. "Several women have been arrested for their involvement in bootlegging," another police officer said. A policeman posted at Jakkanpur under whose jurisdiction the area falls said Ranju was involved in the illegal trade for the past couple of months to make fast buck.

The police are carrying out raids to arrest her husband Mukesh Kumar, who is on the run. "A case under the provisions of the Excise and Prohibition Act, 2016, has been lodged against Ranju, a native of Vaishali, and her associates," said Amrendra Jha, the station house officer of Jakkanpur.

In another operation, the Vaishali police seized a truckload of foreign liquor from the industrial area of Hajipur in the wee hours. Four persons have been arrested and Rs 4.68 lakh has been recovered from one of them, a local who had brought the money to purchase liquor for bootlegging purposes.

"We conducted the raid after a tip-off and seized the truck carrying about 2,800 litres of foreign liquor. The consignment had come from Haryana," Vaishali superintendent of police Rakesh Kumar said.

He added that the call records of the local purchaser were being fetched to find out the link in Haryana who used to supply liquor in Vaishali.

"We cannot share much on this front because it might hamper our efforts to reach to the top of the network involved in bootlegging in the district," the SP said.

Vaishali police have registered over 150 bootlegging-related cases since prohibition came into effect in Bihar on April 5 last year.

As far as big seizures are concerned, the district police have made six such hauls in which liquor more than 2,000 litres was seized in one operation. He said in January this year the police had seized a consignment of over 4,000 litres of foreign liquor.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar had first considered only a partial prohibition by banning country liquor. However, the overwhelming response of women and self-help groups combined with feedback from over-enthusiastic supporters pushed him to declare total prohibition from April 5.