Bihar Prime Minister Nitish Kumar , currently in “Samaj Sudhar Abhiyan” ( public) reform campaign) yatra to raise public awareness about alcohol bans, criticizing those who oppose bans. He said those who drank and had difficulty coming to Bihar due to the unavailability of alcohol did not need to come to the province.
In a speech last Sunday, India’s Chief Justice NV Ramana cited a law banning Bihar as an example of “lack of foresight” in drafting laws that lead to court cases and a “bail application” that takes a year to complete. discarded.
What stands out about Nitish is that since the implementation of the Bihar Tax Prevention Act, 2016, the courts have been overcrowded and overcrowded prisons.
State police records show that 3,48,170 cases have been filed and 4,01,855 arrests under the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act as of October this year. About 20,000 bail applications in connection with these cases are pending in the Patna High Court and in the regional courts in the province.
The Patna High Court dismissed 19,842 (expected and normal) bail applications in liquor denial cases between January 2020 and November 2021, with all 70,673 bail applications rejected by the court during this period. As of November, 6,880 bail applications in such cases are pending before the high court, with the number of bail representatives standing at 37,381.
In all, 59 Bihar prisons have a capacity of about 47,000 inmates. However, there are currently about 70,000 prisoners in these prisons, about 25,000 of whom were booked under the liquor law, according to prison sources.
Bihar police intensify their crackdown on alcohol-related crime since the disaster Gopalganj With Bettiah in early November this year, about 10,000 suspected criminals were arrested in November alone. This has led to the overcrowding of prisons across the province. The Beur Central Prison in Patna has a capacity of about 2,400 inmates, but currently holds 5,600 inmates.
The superintendent of the prison said: “Every third or fourth prisoner can be prosecuted under the liquor law. This has been the trend since 2017. We once had a break in 2019 and 2020 as most people get bail, but the number of alcohol offenders is still growing in prisons ”.
When it comes to commenting, Bihar’s additional police chief (Headquarters) Jitendra Singh Gangwar told The Indian Express , “IG (Prisons) can share information about alcohol law ”. IG (Prisons) Mithilesh Mishra, however, was not available.A home affairs source said: “Alcohol conviction is less than 1 percent. But there are about 75 special courts set up for immediate dismissal of cases under the ban on alcohol and tax law ”.
Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar continues to repeat his alcohol ban campaign in Bihar. In his current address, CM said, in Gopalganj on December 24, that: “The death penalty for 9 people (this March) by the Gopalganj court in 2016 is a great lesson for drinkers and traders. Piyoge to maroge (If you drink, you will die)”.