Patna, Jan 13 (IANS): A man from Bihar's Khagaria district jumped into the Gandak river after being chased by a sniffer dog of the district police, an official said.

The man has been identified as Ishwar Yadav, a native of Ramchandra village under town police station, who went missing from his farmland on Tuesday evening. A rescue operation is on for the past 36 hours to find his body.

"While he was farming, a police or excise department team reached there for a raid to recover liquor. They saw my father working in the agricultural land, and directed a sniffer dog to search for liquor. When my father saw the dog was running towards him very fast, he ran towards the Gandak river," said Guddu Kumar, Ishwar Yadav's son.

"In a bid to save himself from the dog, my father jumped into the Gandak river. He is still missing. The police department has killed my father," he added.

Following the incident, a large number of villagers assembled on the bank of Gandak river. The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) initiated the rescue operation but they were unable to trace his body.

Amitesh Kumar, Superintendent of Police (SP), Khagaria, told IANS: "We do not have sniffer dogs in the district. Hence, police action through sniffer dogs is not possible. When we require a sniffer dog for investigation of a particular case, we take special permission from state headquarters to arrange the dog," he said.

Denying his department having sniffer dogs, Vikash Kumar, superintendent of excise department also said: "Our team was not there for a liquor raid. We do not have sniffer dogs. The villagers are blaming us for the the man going missing."

In the past, several cases of liquor being stored in barrels, hidden in cavities underground have been reported after a joint team of the excise and police department used sniffer dogs to detect them.