Patna: The arrest of a Chinese man for possession of liquor at a guesthouse in the Gardanibagh area has become an international relations exercise. A senior official from the Chinese consulate in Calcutta reached Patna on Monday and told the cops that his countrymen were not aware of prohibition in Bihar.
The city police, based on inputs, raided the Oppo Mobile guesthouse at Ali Nagar and arrested a Chinese national, Tiandong, on charges of possessing liquor.
The police, sources said, had recovered two liquor bottles, including one of a Nepalese brand, from Tiandong's room.
"I am sorry that a citizen from my country has violated the rules of your state," Wang Lifeng, economic & commercial consul at the Chinese consulate in Calcutta, told Gardanibagh police station house officer C.P. Yadav on Monday.
Lifeng spoke in Chinese, and a translator narrated what he was saying. Lifeng said that the arrested Chinese citizen had no knowledge about prohibition in the state. "Please provide us the list of dos and don'ts that a person - especially a foreigner - has to follow in your state. Also provide us a list of what to drink and what not to drink," he said.
The Chinese consul was at the police station for more than 30 minutes, and reiterated that Tiandong's act was negligence as he didn't know about the dry law.
Lifeng was also to meet Patna senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaaj in the evening. Highly placed sources in the Patna police said they had received several calls from Delhi and Calcutta over the arrest.
Tiandong has been booked under Section 38 (1, 2) of Bihar Prohibition & Excise Act, 2016. If found guilty, he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison. He was produced in the additional district session judge's court on Monday, from where he has been forwarded to Beur Central Jail.
Tiandong, who hails from Xiaogang in Hubei province in China, was in Patna on a business visa for six months. He was working with Oppo Mobile.
Nine Chinese nationals, including two women, are in Patna assessing the work of Oppo Mobile. Eight of them have business visas while one person has a work visa.
During the raid at the four-storey guesthouse on Sunday, a liquor bottle was also recovered from the room of another Chinese national, Wu Chuangyong, who was away in Bhagalpur. The police have asked Wu Chuangyong to surrender.
The police had seized the passports of the nine Chinese nationals, and after verification returned the passports to them. The cops had also found Rs 9 lakh from Tiandong's room and have handed the cash over to the income-tax department for verification.
The Patna office of Oppo Mobile has issued a statement stating that the actions by the employees in question were undertaken in their personal capacities and in no way represent the company's views or intentions. The company is cooperating with the local authorities to ensure that the investigation can be done smoothly and will provide all possible information required, the statement said.
Under Bihar's stringent prohibition law, companies are responsible if employees are caught drinking on office premises.
