A decade of prohibition in the state has pushed drinking underground, creating coded doorstep liquor deliveries, a booming black market, rising drug abuse, and repeated hooch tragedies
In Kankarbagh, an upscale locality in the heart of Patna, ‘pure milk’ does not mean any packet of pasteurized milk. It is a code word for expensive blended Scotch whisky, which comes in a tetra pack to avoid prying eyes.
In dry Bihar, where prohibition for the past 10 years has turned ‘sonapapdi’ into code for expensive alcohol — smuggled from Jharkhand, UP and Bengal — the illicit business isn’t just surviving; it’s thriving, like a high stakes game of cat-and-mouse.
In dry Bihar, where prohibition for the past 10 years has turned ‘sonapapdi’ into code for expensive alcohol — smuggled from Jharkhand, UP and Bengal — the illicit business isn’t just surviving; it’s thriving, like a high stakes game of cat-and-mouse.