Having a liquor party from a candidate aspiring to be a pradhan in Ballia, proved ominous for some villagers as three of them died while the rest were admitted to the district hospital on Friday night. A case was registered in this regard but no one was arrested so far.
As per reports, Naveen Kumar of Kumhara hamlet of Sukhpur in Ballia, hosted a liquor and Rsbati-chokha’ party for the villagers on Friday night. Naveen is contesting for the post of Pradhan in the panchayat polls from local Dharhara seat.
As the party was midway, about two dozen villagers suddenly complained of discomfort and some even fainted. later the revellers were rushed to District Hospital where doctors declared Ram Govind Bind (55), Keshav (60) and Kundan Gupta (60) dead upon arrival while the condition of Surya Dev Bind (35) was stated to be critical.
Even as the villagers and local police maintained that the victims died of spurious liquor, DM of Balia, Sharad Kumar Singh clarified that the elderly man died ‘due to illness’. However, a magisterial inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of death and person/s resposnible for the death. SSP, Ballia promised to take stern action against the guilty.
Meanwhile, sleuths of the Special Task Force (STF) claimed to have arrested two persons and recovered a truck load of liquor in Azamgarh on Friday.
As per reports, a STF team intercepted a truck at Sindhari area of Azamgarh and recovered 57,600 bottles of whisky from the truck. Two persons were arrested who were identified as Ravi Singh and Manoj Gujjar of Bawadiya (MP). They claimed that ladoo of Haryana had handed them the truck and asked to deliver the consignment in Azamgarh. They said that they have carried out similar delivery as liquor was cheap in Haryana and its demand had spiked in east UP due to on-going panchayat elections. Further investigations are on in this regard.