Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday slammed the visit of a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) team to Saran district for probing hooch deaths. He accused it of discrimination and encroaching upon the rights of the state.

The NHRC at first sent notices to the Bihar government in the wake of the hooch deaths last week. It later decided to depute its team to conduct an on-the-spot enquiry into the incident.

The team visited the affected villages and the Saran district hospital on Wednesday.

“It has come to roam here. Did it ever go for the people who died in other places or any other state? Has such an incident occurred only in this state? The least number of such incidents has happened here,” Nitish said.

“Tell me any part of the country where people do not die of consuming hooch? First understand the Constitution, which has given the right to enforce prohibition to the states. These visits have no meaning,” Nitish added.

He asserted that the government was already sad over the incident and was getting a probe conducted into various aspects of the hooch case.

“We already have provisions to realise money from those whose hooch people consumed and died. We are going to do it,” he said.

Nitish was talking to reporters on the sidelines of inaugurating a community centre and a tourism centre in the state capital in light of the upcoming birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh.

The NHRC visit has whipped up a controversy with the opposition parties at the Centre alleging that the constitutional body has fallen prey to the government and become yet another tool to be used against the opponents.