Patna. On Thursday, 25 people died due to drinking spurious liquor in Siwan and Saran districts of Bihar. A police official said that 12 people were arrested in the case of selling spurious liquor. Director General of Police Alok Raj said that 20 people died in Siwan and five in Saran due to drinking spurious liquor and 12 people were arrested for allegedly selling spurious liquor. He said that the strictest action will be taken against the arrested people.
Raj told ‘PTI-Video’ service, two special investigation teams have also been formed after the incident. A team formed at the local level will investigate the criminal aspects involved in the latest case. Apart from this, another SIT has been constituted by the Prohibition Department in Patna, which will conduct a comprehensive study of all such incidents that have taken place in the recent times, on the basis of which action will be planned. The police officer also said that a liquor mafia has been arrested. The name has been revealed. He was earlier involved in a similar case and is currently out on bail.
He told that we are investigating the matter from all possible aspects. According to officials of both the districts, the incident took place in Maghar and Auriya Panchayat of Siwan and Mashrakh of Saran on Tuesday night when many local people consumed alcohol.
The Nitish Kumar government of Bihar had completely banned the sale of liquor in the state in April 2016. Officials also said that more than 20 people are still battling for life in hospitals, many of whom have lost their eyesight due to the ill effects of spurious liquor.
State Prohibition Minister Ratnesh Sada talked about bringing a stringent HCCA (Crime Control Act) to curb the liquor mafia but got angry when asked by journalists about the alleged failure of the prohibition law. Congress Bihar unit president Akhilesh Prasad Singh targeted the state government and said, why only CCA? The culprits should be hanged. No one should be spared, regardless of which opposition party the suspect belongs to. But now the time has come for the government to review its prohibition policy, which has failed to stop the sale of spurious liquor. The former Rajya Sabha MP also said that the party has constituted a seven-member fact-finding team which will investigate the affected areas. Will visit and submit his report to the Congress leadership.
Communist Party of India (CPI)-Marxist Leninist (ML) MLA from Siwan’s Darauli seat Satyadev Ram visited the affected areas and alleged that the administration is bent upon suppressing the whole matter. Residents of at least 60 villages have consumed alcohol. This could not have happened on such a large scale, unless the people involved in illegal trade were getting protection from the local administration. Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav said, deaths due to alcohol have become common in Bihar, but No high ranking officer is ever punished for this mistake. If spurious liquor is being available despite prohibition, then it is also a failure of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has kept the Home portfolio with himself throughout his tenure. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister chaired a high-level meeting to review the situation, In which he directed the concerned officials to visit the spot and ensure strict action against those found guilty. He appealed to the people of the state to beware of such elements who are trying to promote alcohol consumption and playing with people’s lives. Since the state government banned liquor, more than 150 deaths have occurred due to alcohol.