PATNA: In “dry” Bihar, he created a flourishing oasis of illicit liquor to build a fortune that he loved flaunting — luxury wheels, fancy phones and a designer lifestyle.
Both luck and liquor ran out for 28-year-old Atul Singh, who has an MBA degree from a reputable Noida university, on Friday when Bihar police raided his rented accommodation at the city’s Mahatma Gandhi Nagar. Over 1,100 litres of liquor worth Rs 21 lakh were found stocked in the house.
Manoranjan Bharti, SHO, Patrakarnagar police station, said entries in Atul’s diary suggested he sold liquor worth around Rs 9 lakh a day in various parts of the city. The police are digging into his bank passbooks and documents related to monetary transactions to find out more about his business. Atul, a resident of Alawalpur village in Patna rural, told interrogators that he would employ jobless youths to deliver liquor to his customers across Patna. As per police, he paid Rs 500 for every successful delivery. Around 30 to 40 youths were involved in the trade.
The police laid a trap for Atul following the arrest of two of his alleged accomplices, Indrajit Singh and Sanjiv Kumar. Initially, he tried to mislead the cops by claiming to be a management student. “He produced an identity card of a Noida university. But the raid party had evidence and he was forced to make a confession,” the SHO told TOI on Saturday.
Two rooms of the house were used to stock liquor supplied to him by four smugglers from Vaishali, police said. Raids are underway to nab suppliers. Police have also arrested his alleged associate Vishal Kumar. On Friday, Atul, Sanjiv and Indrajit were produced in a local court and remanded in judicial custody for 14 days. Bharti said all four accused have been booked under Bihar Prohibition and Excise (Amendment) Act, 2018. A Honda Amaze car, a Kawasaki Ninja motorbike, Rs 1.75 lakh in cash and two iPhones are among the items confiscated from them.