MAURYA HOTEL OWNER BOOKED AFTER LIQUOR FOUND BY ED

PATNA: Owner of Maurya Hotel in Patna, one of the landmarks in Bihar’s capital, was Monday booked under the state’s prohibition law after bottles of liquor were allegedly found at his house during searches by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an unrelated case, a senior police officer said.

Patna’s senior superintendent of police (SP) Rajiv Mishra told HT that an FIR (first information report) has been registered against S P Sinha with Rupaspur police station on the basis of the statement of a sub-inspector after bottles of Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) were seized from his house during searches by ED.

Following the seizure, the excise department also searched Sinha’s hotel and his chartered accountant’s premises but no further recovery was made, officials said.

An ED team from Uttar Pradesh has been searching Sinha’s premises since Saturday evening after one of his employees, identified as one Gautam Mukherjee, was held with foreign currency at Varanasi Cantt railway station on Friday.

Hemant Singh, station house officer of Government Railway Police (GRP) station in Varanasi, told HT that a middle-aged couple entered into an argument at the railway station and the police had to intervene, which eventually led to seizure of $9,000 and arrest of Mukherjee.

“During interrogation, Mukherjee said Sinha had asked him to meet a person namely ‘Dubey’ in Varanasi and fetch the foreign currency,” the SHO said, adding that ED was then informed of the seizure of foreign currency.

Sinha refused to comment.