Patna, Aug 5 (IANS): Facing criticism over ill-implementation of the liquor ban law in dry Bihar, the state police and Anti-Liquor Task Force (ALTF) on Thursday claimed to arrest more than 73,000 offenders in the last 7 months.

As per an ALTF official,the department nabbed more than 40,000 people while remaining arrests were made by district police.

Sharing the data, the official said that a total number of arrested persons in the state are 73,413, of which 40,074 were nabbed by the ALTF. During the period of seven months, 52,770 FIRs have been registered in different police stations of the state.

"The liquor prohibition act was imposed in the state from April 2016. As per the data, 4,012 offenders were arrested in 2018, 4,313 in 2019, 3,802 in 2020 and 5,522 in 2021. The ALTF came into effect from January 2022 and we have arrested 4,357 offenders in January, 4,118 in February, 5,422 in March, 4,490 in April, 6,255 in May, 6,992 in June and 8,440 in July.

"We have 233 teams spread in all 38 districts of Bihar working round the clock in association with district police," the officer said.