The court ordered that FIR be lodged under charges of dacoity against all the 18 police personnel. (File)
A court in Bihar's Muzaffarpur area on Friday ordered that an FIR be lodged against 18 police personnel who had looted cash and jewellery, valued at more than Rs 50 lakh, from the house of a retired serviceman earlier this year.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Nayan Kumar passed the order on a petition filed by Haridwar Prasad Thakur, a resident of Rasulpur locality, who had prayed for directions to the police station concerned.
Mr Thakur, who has served in the military, alleged that on February 22, the police personnel had barged into his home saying they were searching every house in the vicinity as they had information about liquor stashed away in the locality.
Notably, Bihar has been a dry state for more than five years. Sale and consumption of alcohol has been banned since April, 2016.
The petitioner had further alleged that when he demanded that the policemen produce the search warrant, they lost their cool and beat him up and also thrashed his son and daughter-in-law who tried to intervene.
He accused the policemen of snatching away Rs 49 lakh in cash which he had realized through a land deal and kept inside his home, besides jewellery worth more than Rs three lakh.
The court ordered that FIR be lodged under Section 395 (dacoity) against all the 18 police personnel, of whom 10 were unnamed in the petition.
Among those mentioned by name was the then in-charge of Karja police station Brij Kishore Bind, who is in jail and has been dismissed from service as he was, on a later date, found to be in possession of liquor by the district police chief.