Cross-District Pursuit of an Illicit Liquor Consignment

The van's schedule

• Leaves 16:30. Godda–Pakur 60 km at 40 km/h = 1 h 30 min → Pakur at 18:00
• 30-minute halt → leaves Pakur at 18:30
• Pakur–Dumka 50 km at 40 km/h = 1 h 15 min → Dumka at 19:45
• Diversion: Pakur–Sahibganj 45 km at 40 km/h = 1 h 7.5 min → Sahibganj at about 19:38

The constable's movement

• Information at 15:30. If the team leaves by 15:45, Godda–Pakur 60 km at 40 km/h = 1 h 30 min → on the ground at Pakur at about 17:15, that is 45 minutes before the van is due.

Decision: lay the naka at Pakur, at the fork where the Dumka road and the Sahibganj road separate

• Pakur is the one point every possible route must pass, so a single naka covers both the expected route and the diversion.
• A naka lower down the Pakur–Dumka road gives more time (the van is on that stretch between 18:30 and 19:45) but is blind to the diversion, and there is no second vehicle to cover the fork.
• The 45-minute margin at Pakur is enough to brief six men, place two at the fork, one on the approach road and keep the jeep mobile in reserve. Waiting further away would trade certainty for comfort.

Districts and division

• Origin Godda, naka Pakur, destination Dumka, diversion Sahibganj - all four lie in the Santhal Pargana division, whose headquarters is Dumka.
• The destination is therefore the divisional headquarters itself, which raises the profile of the case and the cost of an error.

Borders that matter

• The Ganga at Sahibganj town faces Bhagalpur district of Bihar; a boat crossing there takes the consignment out of Jharkhand altogether.
• East of Pakur and Sahibganj runs the West Bengal border (Murshidabad and Malda side), reachable by road from Pakur.

Compulsory communication

• The constable is from Godda but will act in Pakur district, so before the naka he must inform the district excise officer at Pakur for authority and record, the officer in charge of Pakur police station for law-and-order cover and independent witnesses, and the Excise Superintendent at Dumka because the consignment is bound for his district.
• If the diversion is confirmed, Sahibganj excise and police and the ghat/ferry staff must be alerted at once.
• A written intimation with time is not paperwork for its own sake: acting silently in another district weakens the case and can be attacked as an unauthorised operation, and the intimation is the constable's own protection if the interception goes wrong.

Time arithmetic first

• The van left Pakur at 18:30 and is due at Sahibganj about 19:38, so roughly an hour remains.
• But Pakur–Sahibganj is 45 km on the same road, and a chase from behind at the same speed never closes the gap; the van simply keeps the lead it already has.

Better use of the hour

• Alert Sahibganj district excise and police and the ghat/ferry point, so the interception happens ahead of the van rather than behind it.
• A naka at the Sahibganj entry, or a vehicle approaching from the opposite direction, closes the gap in minutes instead of an hour.

Why not chase

• Chasing on an unfamiliar road at night with six men and no local police risks an accident or a confrontation the team may not control, and it destroys the value of the witnesses.
• If the van crosses the Ganga, the matter becomes a cross-border one; the case is far stronger if the seizure is made on intimation by the local empowered officer than if a constable from another district attempts it alone.

Correct call Keep two men on the fork in case the report is wrong, and move the main body towards Sahibganj only after intimation has gone ahead. The judgement is not about speed; it is about being in front of the vehicle instead of behind it.