Nawada: In a dramatic interception that echoes the smuggling tactics depicted in the film Pushpa, police in Bihar’s Nawada district have uncovered a major alcohol trafficking operation concealed within an oil tanker.
Officers from Govindpur police station, acting on a tip-off, stopped the vehicle—bearing an Indian Oil label and registration number BR-09G-GB-7821—near Govindpur Chowk. A search of the tanker revealed a secret compartment packed with hundreds of cartons of foreign-made liquor.
The driver, identified as Upendra Turiya from Dhanbad, Jharkhand, was arrested on the spot. Police say the consignment was being transported from Chhattisgarh into Bihar, where a complete ban on alcohol has been in effect since 2016.
DSP of Rajauli, Gulshan Kumar, confirmed that the smugglers had ingeniously designed a hidden cellar within the tanker to avoid detection. “From the outside, it appeared to be a routine fuel transport. Without specific intelligence, it would have gone unnoticed,” Kumar said.
Authorities believe the smuggling could be the work of an organised syndicate. The seized liquor is currently being catalogued, and further investigations are under way to trace the wider network involved. The arrested driver is being interrogated as part of efforts to unravel the full extent of the operation.
