New Delhi rats drunk on moonshine and secret files

Rats are nibbling away at the secret files of India's premier federal investigation agency and consuming litres of "moonshine" seized by police stations in the capital, New Delhi.

Their drunk and disorderly behaviour often creates a law and order problem.

Officials say Delhi's swelling rat population is attacking vital Central Bureau of Investigation files on terrorist, murder, corruption and fraud cases that are overflowing from cramped cupboards at Patiala House, home to the agency's Special Prosecution Courts.

The alcoholic rodents often run amok after drinking the moonshine from plastic sachets, biting people and, in some instances, attacking the cats kept to eliminate them.

Illicit liquor is brewed in and around Delhi and sold in plastic sachets.

The tippling rats are also causing a credibility problem for the police, who frequently find themselves unable to produce samples of the seized moonshine in court as evidence.