Gujarat hooch tragedy: 13 more arrested; 27 held so far
Gujarat Police have arrested 13 more persons in connection with the hooch tragedy in Bhavnagar, including a man from Madhya Pradesh who played a major role in the manufacture of the spurious liquor that claimed 13 lives, officials said on Tuesday.
With this, the total number of arrests in the tragedy that unfolded last week has risen to 27. Gujarat is a ‘dry’ State where the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcohol is banned.
Thirteen persons died after consuming spurious liquor packed in bottles with the label of a popular Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) brand. According to officials, 67 persons had consumed the liquor containing methanol, a highly toxic substance. “After thorough interrogation of the accused arrested earlier, the police’s State Monitoring Cell (SMC) arrested 13 more accused on Sunday and remanded them in police custody till September 2,” a police release said.
While a majority of those arrested are from Bhavnagar, one Anand Chhandi, a resident of Rajgarh district in MP, was brought to Bhavnagar from Ujjain to allegedly manufacture spurious liquor, and he has a “very big role” in the conspiracy. He also allegedly played a major role in the procurement of chemicals used in the manufacturing process, the police said.
As part of the investigation, the SMC seized bottles of liquor containing poisonous chemicals and earlier arrested 14 persons involved in the crime. As many as 16 teams of SMC, a special Gujarat police unit that tracks state-wide illicit liquor and gambling operations, spread out in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat to gather evidence, the release said.
The police are investigating the source of methanol and other chemicals, the transporters involved, and all those linked to procuring and moving raw materials used in manufacturing spurious liquor.
The accused persons have been booked on several charges, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder, adulteration and poisoning, under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Prohibition Act.
