Bihar IAS official on leave on liquor issue

Patna: Bihar Excise and Prohibition Department's Principal Secretary KK Pathak has gone on leave amid reports of his displeasure over the arrest of his department's sub-inspector for taking action against a ruling JD(U) leader, from whose house liquor was seized.

"I have asked the (state) government to find a secretary from other department to replace me," Pathak, who has not been attending office since last Wednesday, told PTI today.

To a question about the arrest of the sub-inspector, Pathak said it was a "miscarriage of justice. Whatever has happened is wrong. It would set a wrong precedent."

A 1990-batch IAS officer, Pathak was a key man in enforcing the total prohibition in the state since April this year.

The prohibition department team had allegedly recovered liquor from the house of Chandradeep Sen alias Moti Singh, Harnaut block president of JD(U), on August 30.

According to the latest figure of the Department, a total of 4,167 persons were arrested in the past five months since the new Bihar prohibition law came into effect from April 1.

As per records of the Excise and Prohibition department, 11,679 litres of foreign liquor and 92,291.47 litres of country spirit have been seized in the past five months.