Patna: In a huge embarrassment to the ruling coalition, police have arrested the son of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentarian for badly assaulting his wife, mother, sister and little children under the influence of liquor in Bihar which imposed total prohibition three years back. The arrested man is the son of Hari Manjhi who is the BJP MP from Gaya but this time he was not contesting elections as his seat was given to the Janata Dal United (JD-U).
Police said the accused, identified as Rahul Kumar, reached his home on Friday and began hurling abuses on his wife Sonam Devi. When she asked for the reason behind it, the man took the leather belt off his trousers and began hitting her.
Hearing her cries, her mother-in-law rushed to help but was also assaulted badly. He didn’t spare his pregnant sister and little children either and beat them up. Unable to bring the situation under control, eventually the parliamentarian called up the local police for help. It was then that the local rushed to the spot and rescued the female family members.
Subsequently, the police arrested the man and sent him to jail after it was confirmed during the medical examination that he had consumed alcohol. The police also admitted the injured women to the local government hospital for treatment.
“During the medical examination, the accused was found to have consumed liquor. We have arrested him and are forwarding to jail soon,” the local deputy superintendent of police Ranjeet Kumar Rajak told the media on Saturday.
According to the police official, accused wife had alleged in her complaint petition that the man had been assaulting her since her marriage in 2014. She has alleged her husband had always been consuming liquor.
The state government in Bihar has imposed total ban on consumption and sale of liquor in Bihar since April 2016 yet the liquor flows unabated in the state. On Friday, the police seized 474 cartons of foreign liquor worth Rs10 million (Dh529,100) in Bihar.
The incident has confirmed Bihar opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav’s allegation that liquor consumption goes on as usual in Bihar despite the total liquor ban.
