A parallel economy: Bootleggers flourish in Bihar's liquor crackdown

Ahead of the 2015 assembly elections in Bihar, chief minister Nitish Kumar had promised to ban the consumption of alcohol in the state if re-elected

In the dead of night, Rajesh (name changed) visits a graveyard in his town in central Bihar four times a week. “A desolate place like that is safe to receive my weekly consignment of alcohol,” he said. “We keep changing locations. Sometimes we meet deep in the farmlands.”

Clad in a pair of greasy shorts and a torn T-shirt, Rajesh, in his mid-40s, is a car mechanic but his biggest earnings--over Rs 1 lakh a month--come from bootlegging in the state that was declared dry in 2016. “Don’t go by my attire,” he said with a laugh, squatting on a