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Illicit liquor continues to be served to villagers to influence them for the coming panchayat elections despite Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's stern warning. On Thursday, two causalities due to spurious liquor were reported from Ayodhya while the death-toll in Pratapgarh hooch tragedy rose to seven.
It may be mentioned that the chief minister has already asked senior officials to fix responsibility of the officers who fail to check sale of spurious liquor in their areas besides invoking Gangsters Act against the culprits. Besides, State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar has also asked all district magistrates and district police chiefs to ensure that no sale or distribution of illicit or spurious liquor is made to influence the voters in the ongoing panchayat polls.
According to reports from Ayodhya, Ramnath Verma, the outgoing gram pradhan (village head) of Trilokpur in Gosainganj area, threw a liquor party in the village, allegedly to influence the voters, on Wednesday night. After consuming liquor, said to be spurious, about a dozen of the villagers started vomiting and fainted after which they were taken to a hospital where Virendra Verma (32) and Dharmendra Verma (30) were pronounced dead while the condition of Lal Bahadur, Rajesh Prajapati, Jaishree, Dhruv Kumar Verma, Rajesh, Ram Subhawan Verma was said to be critical.
Sources said that the villagers were admitted to different hospitals in Ayodhya and Ambedkarnagar.
Senior officers, who reached the spot after the incident, claimed that they took the complaint against the outgoing gram pradhan and were investigating the matter. They said that stern action would be taken against the accused along with the officers found to have failed to check the sale of spurious liquor.
Meanwhile, the death-toll in the Pratapgarh hooch tragedy rose to seven with three more persons succumbing to the spurious liquor. Four people, including two brothers, had died after consuming spurious liquor on Tuesday night.
Three more victims of the hooch tragedy are undergoing treatment in hospital when reports last arrived.
Superintendent of Police of Pratapgarh, Akash Tomar, said that the station house officer of local police station, excise inspector, beat sub-inspector and constable had been suspended by the police authorities while the district magistrate had suspended the lekhpal.
A local liquor mafia, identified as Daboo, along with five others was arrested by the police in a drive to check the sale of illicit liquor and drugs.
It may be mentioned that the incident in Pratapgarh took place in Katariya village of Udaipur area where liquor was allegedly served by a candidate of gram pradhan election to influence the voters in the panchayat election.
Last week, four persons had died after consuming spurious liquor in Pratapgarh district while eight persons had succumbed to illicit liquor in Chitrakoot.