10 woman cops suspended for not taking prohibition oath

The Nitish regime in Bihar has suspended ten woman cops for not taking oath of prohibition. Under this oath, one has to swear not to consume liquor in dry Bihar.

All the woman cops belong to Bihar Military Police (BMP)-15. As per the order issued by the BMP commandant, these female cops did not participate in the oath-taking function despite orders issued by Major Pankaj Kumar.

It is worth mentioning here that Bihar enforced Prohibition in April 2016. Ever since the State went dry three years back, several lakh litres of illicit liquor had been seized while 250 policemen, found either drunk or hand-in-glove with the liquor traders, were suspended. “Of them, 36 cops were dismissed from service after the prohibition law was amended and made quite stringent,” said a senior official in the Excise and Prohibition Department.

To make Prohibition successful, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has made officer-in-charge (O-C) of each police station accountable for any illegal sale or consumption of liquor. “If liquor is found/seized in any area, be it for sale or consumption, the officer-in-charge of that particular station will be suspended and divested of the charge of O-C for the next ten years,” said the official.

It’s against this backdrop that the Senior SP (SSP) of Patna, Garima Malik has recommended action against four officers-in-charge (OCs) of Phulwarisharif, Kankarbagh, Rajiv Nagar and Airport police station in the state capital after a huge consignment of liquor was recovered from six different places here.

In fact, during one such surprise raid, the SSP ordered suspension of officer-in-charge of the Bypass police station after a godown, stashed with illicit liquor, was found just few hundred metres away from the police station concerned.