Toll mounts to 53, 8 cops suspended

The toll in the Malad hooch tragedy mounted to 53 late on Friday night, even as the Maharashtra Government suspended eight police officers and personnel attached to the Malwani police station and ordered a high-level inquiry into the administrative lapses in the city police machinery leading to the incident.A day after 13 people died and several others were hospitalised after consuming spurious liquor from an illegal joint at Rathodi village near the fishing suburb of Malwani in north Mumbai, another 40 people died at various hospitals till late on Friday night, taking the toll to 53. At least ten more people are undergoing treatment at the various nearby hospitals.

Police said that a majority of the victims were daily wage earners like the taxi drivers, truck drivers and construction workers. Of them, there were construction workers hailing from Gulbarga in Karnataka.Talking to mediapersons, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that he had ordered a high-level probe into the hooch tragedy. “I have ordered an inquiry and asked police to submit report in two days time,” he said.

The victims, aged between 18 and 45 years, had consumed liquor on Wednesday night at an illegal joint near the area around the Jurassic Park resort at Malvani. Many of the victims were rushed to the nearby hospitals in the early hours of Thursday, after they showed symptoms like nausea, irritation and headache. The first death was reported at 9 am on Thursday and by the night, as many as 13 persons died. The toll went up further on Friday.

The investigators suspect there must have been excess volume of methanol — better known as Methyl alcohol — in the illicit liquor the victims consumed on Wednesday night. The crime branch-CBI officials of the Mumbai Police, who are investigating the incident, arrested three persons — Raju Hanumanth alias Raju langda, Donald Robert and Gautam Biku Arde — in connection with the hooch tragedy. They were produced before a city court which remanded in police custody till June 26.