Rampant raids without search warrants by Bihar police in connection with prohibition have raised serious concerns about the violation of the right to privacy and fundamental rights.

The concerns aggravated after the police raided a wedding function without a warrant on Saturday evening and went on to search the bride’s room without the presence of women officers or constables. No liquor was recovered.

A video of the raid at a posh private hotel–cum–marriage hall under Ramkrishna Nagar police station here went viral on Sunday.

It shows a team of policemen searching the rooms, including those in which only women and the bride were present, opening cupboards and checking the luggage. As the cops go about their work, those present at the venue seem visibly upset by the sudden intrusion.

“We searched the marriage venue on Sunday evening at around 7pm. We have orders from the higher-ups to conduct such searches at wedding functions because people are either carrying liquor or attending them after consuming it. The hotel’s manager and other staff were present with us. The bride and groom’s family members willingly allowed us to search the premises,” Ramkrishan Nagar station house officer (SHO) Jehangir Alam told The Telegraph.

Alam refused to reveal who were the higher-ups who had given such orders.

On whether he had a warrant to conduct the search, he said: “No search warrant is needed in action against liquor.”

He could not explain why women constables were not present.

Asked about the incident, inspector-general (prohibition) Amrit Raj said the police had a right to check or search if they had information about any cognisable offence. “Search warrants are not required in cognisable offences. Flouting prohibition is a cognisable offence,” Raj added.

Around 150 hotels and several houses have been raided over the past couple of days in Patna and around 100 people have been arrested, including a dozen engineers working with multinational companies, doctors, professors, railway employees, businessmen, contractors, law and medical school students.

Some liquor has also been seized. Six engineers were arrested when a bottle of liquor was recovered from them in a hotel. They all had come to attend the marriage of a friend’s sister.

Patna High Court advocate Vindhyachal Singh condemned the police action without search warrants as a glaring example of the violation of the right to privacy, which is intrinsic to the fundamental right to life and personal liberty as guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

“A search warrant is mandatory for the police in such cases. Otherwise they will keep violating the right to privacy without any legal authority in the garb of excise statutes without even having to seek forgiveness if nothing is recovered. The police must understand that fundamental rights are sacrosanct. They cannot invade the privacy of people like this,” Singh said.

Singh added that he would “not debate the prohibition law that is full of draconian provisions. It was set aside by Patna High Court here and is currently under consideration of the Supreme Court. But one thing is certain. The Bihar government has criminalised an activity that is considered normal in other states”.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar refused to pay attention to the gravity of the situation when reporters asked him about the raid at the wedding. “The police have got such complaints that arrangements for liquor consumption are made at weddings. The police are going on the basis of such information. People should not worry about it. If you are not involved in drinking then what is the problem?” Nitish said.

The chief minister said his office was making enquiries about the wedding incident, but asserted that consuming liquor was “bad, immoral and illegal and it has to be stopped. We have given the responsibility to the police and the administration to see to it”.

Nitish banned liquor in Bihar in April 2016 by bringing a law. However, the availability and consumption of liquor never stopped. It simply went underground with the liquor mafia taking deep roots in nexus with the police, excise officials and politicians.

However, the chief minister ordered a crackdown after around 50 people lost their lives in back-to-back hooch tragedies in the state earlier this month. Raids have been conducted across the state since then.

The police have registered 2,176 FIRs and arrested 2,463 people this month for flouting prohibition and seized over 54,000 litres of country liquor and 80,000 litres of Indian-made foreign liquor.