Chinese national jailed under prohibition law released on bail

A Chinese national, who was jailed under the Bihar prohibition law and was given noodles to eat in the prison for being unable to digest the spicy Indian food, has been released on bail after 25 days of imprisonment.

The orders to release 32-year-old Wu Tiandong was issued yesterday, after grant of bail by the Patna High Court on a bail bond of Rs 10,000 with two sureties.

Tiangdong was arrested under the anti-liquor law enacted by Nitish Kumar-led government in the state. He was found in a drunken state and two bottles of liquor were recovered from his room in a guest house here during a police raid on June 17.

Police had conducted the raid at the guest house of a private mobile company following a tip-off that some people were consuming alcohol despite the complete ban on sale and consumption of liquor in the state.

Tiandong was the first foreign national to be arrested in the state for violating the prohibition law.

Seven other Chinese nationals, including two women, were also staying at the same guest house, but nothing objectionable was found in their possession and they were let off after questioning, according to police.

One liquor bottle was recovered from the room of another Chinese Wu Chuangyong, who was not present at the guest house at the time of raid he has been absconding since the incident, as per the police officials.

Tiandong, who spent 25 days in Beur Central jail in the state capital, was served boiled rice, vegetables and noodles, jail officials said.

"Since he (Tiandong) can not eat spicy Indian food, we provided food that suits him like noodles, boiled rice and boiled vegetables, bread etc... We simply did it on humanitarian ground," a jail official said.