At least four persons, including a Border Security Force sub-inspector and an army jawan, died after consuming hooch in Bihar’s Samastipur district on Saturday, after 33 deaths due to consumption of illicit liquor elsewhere in the state.

The incident occurred at Rupauli panchayat following a party allegedly thrown by the army jawan on Friday evening. “Four persons are confirmed to have died while two others are under treatment. They all seem to have consumed liquor that the army jawan had brought,” Samastipur SP Manavjit Singh Dhillon told journalists.

He added that the police were in the process of questioning the family members of the jawan, Mohan Kumar, on how and from where he had procured alcohol.

“We have recovered a bottle of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL). Our forensic team is arriving to conduct a chemical examination. We are trying to trace the other affected people. We have sent teams to the village and neighbouring areas to appeal to people not to hide those who may have fallen ill. Our priority is to get them treated,” Dhillon said.

Many families in Bihar secretly perform the last rights of those who die after consuming hooch for fear of being implicated by government agencies in the prohibition law.

In the hooch incident in West Champaran district on Diwali, 16 people died while four persons lost their eyesight. Seven others left the Government Medical College and Hospital in Bettiah against medical advice and despite the deployment of the police there. Their whereabouts are not known yet.

Chief minister Nitish got laws enacted by the state legislature to impose a total ban on liquor trade, production and consumption in April 2016. However, the availability of liquor never stopped with the mafia taking deep roots across Bihar in alleged collusion with enforcement agencies.

Asked whether the back-to-back hooch incidents indicated that prohibition had failed, JDU national president and Lok Sabha member Rajiv Ranjan Singh pointed to murders being committed despite laws and punishment.

“When murders happen, those involved in it are given life sentences or capital punishment. There are laws but still murders take place. I don’t know what has happened in these cases. It is a matter of investigation, but the culprits will be punished,” Singh told The Telegraph.

Asked again if the liquor ban had not been implemented properly, Singh retorted: “Don’t put words in my mouth.”

Nitish convened a high-level meeting on Friday evening to review prohibition and expressed anger over the recent hooch deaths. He asked officials to “identify and take strict action against government officers and employees involved in compromising the ban on liquor”.

The chief minister will chair another review meeting on prohibition on November 16.