Chatra/Medininagar, March 17 Police have seized 4.53 kg of opium and 1,318 bottles of spurious foreign liquor in separate operations in the districts of Chatra and Palamu in Jharkhand, and arrested five people, officials said on Tuesday.
In Chatra, a unit for manufacturing spurious liquor was busted at Postiya village under the Vasishtha Nagar police station limits, and three people were apprehended, they said.
Excise Superintendent Prem Prakash Oraon said the unit had been operating for the past four months. Acting on a tip-off, police raided the premises and recovered liquor being produced under a branded label.
Three other accused managed to escape. The seized liquor is estimated to be worth Rs 5 lakh, he said.
In a separate operation in the Palamu district, police arrested two persons and seized 4.530 kg of opium valued at around Rs 22.65 lakh, SDPO of Medininagar, Rajeev Ranjan, said.
FIRs have been registered in both the cases, police added.