The death toll in the Punjab spurious liquor tragedy rose to 86 on Saturday, officials said as the tragedy is still unfolding in the State even as a series of suspension of officials and arrests have been made.
Till Friday night, the State authorities had reported 39 deaths from three districts. Nineteen of them had taken place in Tarn Taran alone, followed by 11 in Amritsar and nine in Batala.
State Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has already ordered a magisterial probe into the tragedy, unfolding since Wednesday night. Till now, police have arrested 25 people in connection with the case. The Opposition Shiromani Akali Dal on Friday demanded a judicial probe by a sitting judge of the Punjab and Haryana Court while the Aam Aadmi Party sought the Chief Minister’s resignation.
The Chief Minister has promised strict action against anyone involved in the case and has directed police to crack down on any spurious liquor manufacturing unit operating in the State.
As the death toll in the hooch tragedy rose to 86, the Punjab Police on Saturday arrested 17 more persons in a massive crackdown spanning more than 100 raids in the three affected districts of Amritsar Rural, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran, along with several other places in and around Rajpura and Shambhu border. The total number of arrests in the case has gone up to 25.
A mafia mastermind, a woman kingpin, a transport owner, a wanted criminal and owners/managers of various dhabas from where the illicit liquor was being supplied are among the arrested accused, DGP Dinkar Gupta said in a statement.
The raiding parties have also seized large quantities of Lahan from various villages and dhabas in the region around Shambhu border, Rajpura and Patiala, he said, adding the raids had exposed a massive racket in illicit liquor, extending across several districts. The dhabas, identified as Zilmil Dhaba, Green Dhaba, Chhinda Dhaba on Shambhu, and Banur and Rajpura in Patiala, have been sealed.
As much as 750 litres of Lahan had been seized from village Baghaura from where two persons, Satnam and Rashem, had been arrested while another, identified as Lakhwinder, had been identified as a culprit. Kingpin Darshan Rani, alias, Faujan was arrested by the Batala Police, while another key accused Beeri, of village Deo, PS Sadar Tarn Taran, has also been arrested for supplying the spurious alcohol. Prem Singh, the owner of Azad Transport, and Bhinda (wanted by Tarn Taran Police) were arrested by Rajpura police in raids.
In the raid at Jhilmil Dhaba, whose manager Narinder Singh has been arrested, 200 liters of Lahan was seized. The dhaba owner Harjit Singh has been named in the FIR.
At Green Dhaba, Rajpura Chandigarh Road PS Zirakpur, approximately 200 liters of diesel like liquid was recovered in four to five small containers, which truck drivers were selling to the dhaba owner. The dhaba has also been sealed and its owner Gurjant Singh has been arrested. One Narinder Singh, the owner of Multani Dhaba, has also been arrested in the case, the DGP said.
Another 150 litres of Lahan was recovered from one Parminder Singh and 200 liters from Baljit Singh. Both these men have also been arrested.
Describing the modus operandi of the accused, the DGP said the trucks carrying spirit would be stopped at six to seven identified dhaba and the dhaba owners collected the hooch from truck drivers and sold it to one Bhinda of Rajpura, who was also accused in Rajpura factory case and Bittu of a village near Banur. The spirit was being supplied by these people to Amritsar and surrounding areas.
Raids were continuing, with SSP Patiala camping at Rajpura for personally supervising the raids and rounding up the culprits, the DGP said, adding efforts were on to smash the supply chain of the spurious alcohol.