The Siwan police in Bihar on Wednesday filed a charge sheet against 15 people arrested in the January 2023 hooch tragedy case, which claimed eight lives at Bala village of Bhopatpur panchayat of Maharaajganj sub-division.
The charge sheet has named 15 persons—Dipak alias Sonu Kumar Chouhan, Mantu Bin, Suresh Bin, Sandip, Arjun, Vikash, Mohammad Nisar, Neeraj Dubey, Dinesh Tiwari and Gajendra Mishra– as accused.
A case was registered with the Lakdinaviganj police outpost and was later handed over to Criminal Investigation Department (prohibition) for a detailed probe.
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According to the charge sheet, ethyl alcohol mixed with methyl alcohol was used in making hooch which led to deaths in Safiabad and Baikunthpur villages after people allegedly consumed hooch.
The 82-page charge sheet with hundreds of pages of case diary was submitted before the special prohibition court of additional district judge (ADJ-2) by the investigating officer-cum-station house officer (SHO) of Lakdinaviganj police outpost.
Additional director general of police headquarters (PHQ), Jitendra Singh Gangwar, said the charge sheet was filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 272 (adulteration of food or drink intended for sale), 272 (sale of noxious food or drink), 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy), 328 (causing hurt by means of poison, etc with intent to commit an offence), 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and Bihar Excise Act.
According to the PHQ, the district police team and sleuths of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and CID collected evidence from the spot and examined viscera reports of victims which showed a copious amount of consumption of the spurious liquor adversely affected several body organs of the victims.
According to the charge sheet, the prime accused in the case is Chouhan, who brought spirit consignment from Kolkata in the name of making sanitiser and sold them to Mantu Bin and Suresh Bin, the lead suppliers.
During the investigation, police found that a consignment of spirit was brought to Muzaffarpur from Kolkata on January 18 with the connivance of transporter identified as Tiwari, Nisar and Dubey of Bhadohi in Uttar Pradesh.
“According to the viscera examination report by the FSL team, the reason behind the death of the victims said to be alcohol (methyl) intoxication,” said Gangwar, adding that the FSL team also found ethyl alcohol mixed with methyl alcohol from the blood samples of victims and others.
Also Read: Authorities in Bihar suppressed hooch tragedy death toll: NHRC
This is the first hooch incident reported in the state in 2023. Earlier on December 16, eight people were killed in Siwan after consuming spurious liquor. Over 70 were killed in December last year after allegedly consuming spurious liquor in the Saran district in Chapra.
The opposition has alleged that hooch incidents have exposed the hollowness of the liquor ban in the state due to poor implementation on the ground.
In Bihar, under the excise act, there is a complete prohibition on the manufacturing, bottling, distribution, transportation, collection, storage, sale, possession, or purchase of any intoxicant liquor after it was banned by the state government in 2016.
