Patna: Bihar is seeking help from specially-trained dogs to check smuggling of liquor which goes on unabated despite total prohibition enforced some three years back. Right now, a total of 20 liquor-tracker dogs which were imparted rigorous training for nine months in Hyderabad have been deployed in various sensitive points across the state.
Sniffer dogs were, so far, being used for detecting substances such as explosives and illegal drugs but this is for the first that Bihar has raised a special dog squad which can detect alcohol hidden anywhere. With this, Bihar has become the first Indian state to have raised special squad for this purpose.
Bihar is the first Indian state which has raised a special dog squad trained in detecting liquor
The special dog squad reached Patna only this week after a rigorous training in liquor sniffing skills at the Hyderabad-based Integrated Intelligence Training Academy. On Friday, they joined the passing-out parade before a group of top police officials before their deployment in nine districts. A maximum of four liquor-tracker dogs have been deployed in Patna district.
“Bihar is the first Indian state which has raised a special dog squad trained in detecting liquor. Now we are taking their services to nab liquor smugglers,” Bihar’s additional general of Crime Investigation Department Vinay Kumar told the media on Saturday.
The police department was compelled to raise this special dog squad alarmed at the continuous flow of liquor in “dry” Bihar despite its draconian law to ban liquor in the state. The gravity of the situation is underlined from the fact that more than three million litres of illegal alcohol have been seized in Bihar since the state imposed a total prohibition in April 2016.
According to a report in local media, the ruling Nitish Kumar government in Bihar arrested 115,000 persons during 560,000 liquor raids until February last year. Apart from this, the police also registered 88,000 First Information Reports (FIRs) with regard to illegal consumption and liquor smuggling but they failed to yield desired results.
Now, as a last ray of hope, the state police department has engaged the liquor-tracker dogs to restrict the cases of liquor smuggling.
