BHABUA: A Bihar excise department constable who allegedly armtwisted two Odisha government officials to pay ₹1 lakh in bribes because they had consumed liquor before entering the state has been arrested, police said on Wednesday.
Kunal Kumar, a prohibition (excise) constable, and his accomplice Satish Yadav were arrested following a complaint by the two Odisha officials after a quick inquiry supported their allegations.
Kalpataru Sethi, an official with Odisha’s Keonjhar district treasury at Badhal, his subordinate Laxmidhar Barad and a driver were returning from Prayagraj after a dip at Maha Kumbh when they were stopped by the constable near the integrated check post on NH 19 (GT Road) on Monday.
Sethi said they were caught up in huge jams on their way back from Prayagraj. At one point, they consumed liquor near Varanasi and were fast asleep at about 2:45pm when the car entered Bihar, which imposed a blanket ban on liquor in the state way back in 2016.
According to the law, it is a crime to be under the influence of liquor in the state. Besides, the liquor bottle was still in the car, Sethi said over the phone.
They asked the constable to let them go, telling him that they had consumed liquor in small quantities. But the constable didn’t budge.
He forced them to park the car at a hotel 4km away and demanded ₹1 lakh. The two officials had ₹80,000 cash on them. He took it away. “He also snatched ₹10,000 from the driver and their purse and mobile phones and demanded additional ₹20,000,” Sethi said.
But the constable wanted more, he said, and forced him to transfer ₹10,000 more via a third party.
He finally let them leave at 4.20 pm, he said.
Sethi said he got contact details of a joint commissioner-rank officer in the excise department from a friend in Odisha and told him the entire incident. He also shared video clips of the constable that he had secretly recorded as well as the receipt of the transfer.
Kaimur’s excise superintendent was ordered to look into the complaint and a team was formed. The constable who took the amount was identified and ₹10,500 of the amount hidden under a parked truck was recovered at his instance, excise superintendent Santosh Kumar Shrivastava said.
Kaimur superintendent of police Hari Mohan Shukla said the constable, Kunal Kumar, a resident of Rudranagar village in Buxar district and his associate Satish Yadav of Gazipur district of Uttar Pradesh were arrested on charges of extortion and Prevention of Corruption Act.
“Police are investigating the case and no one involved in the crime would be spared,” SP HM Shukla said.