Two people were found dead in Patna on Friday after allegedly consuming hooch.

Bihar has been a dry state since chief minister Nitish Kumar implemented total prohibition in April 2016.

The bodies were found in a house in Digha locality of Patna. The dead have been identified as Vicky Kumar of Mahua in Vaishali district and Mahadev Kumar of Sonbarsa in Saharsa district.

Both the deceased were in their 40s. While Vicky used to sell golgappas, Mahadev was a mason. They had rented separate rooms from one Rajdev Rai, and were residing with their families.

Prima facie, both of them had passed away sometime on Thursday night. The neighbours suspected something amiss when they did not see them in the morning, and took a look into their rooms to find them lying dead on the floor. They informed the police about it.

“Both of them had been drinking since yesterday (Thursday) morning. Their families were away for Chhath Puja and there was nobody to stop them. We informed the police today (Friday) morning after finding them dead. The police reached and recovered the bodies from their rooms,” a neighbour of the deceased said on the condition of anonymity.

The Bihar prohibition law is considered a draconian one and mandates the citizen to inform the violation of the liquor ban to the police or the excise department.

Although the rooms smelled of alcohol, the police said that they could confirm the reason for death only after getting a post-mortem report.

“We got information about two people lying dead near gate number 93 at Banskothi in Digha. We inspected the place of occurrence. We recovered a chilam (earthen smoking pipe) used to smoke marijuana, cigarettes and matchsticks lying near the bodies. We have not found any evidence of liquor so far,” said Patna sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) (law and order – II) Dinesh Kumar Pandey.

Pandey added that the forensic team of the police had been called to gather further evidence and the dead bodies were being sent for postmortem.

“We are investigating all aspects of the case. A few other people were also present with the two deceased on Thursday and we are probing this angle as well,” the SDPO said.