PATNA: Bihar hooch tragedy; The Siwan police in Bihar have filed a charge sheet against 15 individuals in connection with the hooch tragedy that claimed eight lives in Bala village of Bhopatpur panchayat of Maharaajganj sub-division in January 2023.
The accused have been named in the charge sheet, including Dipak alias Sonu Kumar Chouhan, Mantu Bin, Suresh Bin, Sandip, Arjun, Vikash, Mohammad Nisar, Neeraj Dubey, Dinesh Tiwari, and Gajendra Mishra. 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. The charge sheet was filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 272, 272, 120B, 328, 304, and Bihar Excise Act.
According to NHRC report, The investigation revealed that ethyl alcohol mixed with methyl alcohol was used in making the hooch, which led to deaths in Safiabad and Baikunthpur villages after people allegedly consumed it. 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 that the spurious liquor adversely affected several body organs of the victims.
Chouhan, the prime accused, brought spirit consignment from Kolkata in the name of making sanitizer and sold them to Mantu Bin and Suresh Bin, the lead suppliers. 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.
The hooch tragedy is the first reported incident in Bihar in 2023. Earlier, eight people were killed in Siwan in December 2022, while over 70 were killed in December 2021, allegedly after 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.
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.