The death toll in Bihar’s Saran district due to alleged consumption of spurious liquor has reportedly risen to 40. The suspected hooch tragedy was reported on Wednesday after several people died and others were admitted to the hospital, and sparked a political slugfest in the dry state’s legislative assembly.
Postmortem of 21 bodies took place at Chhapra Civil Hospital, as per sources. The police had arrested at least 86 people in the last 16 hours. A total of 464 people have been arrested in the last fortnight over illicit liquor cases, as per sources.
The rising death toll led to a ruckus in the Bihar assembly with opposition leaders questioning the government’s ban. CM Nitish Kumar shot back, saying that people were dying even where there was no ban.
“There is full effort to implement liquor ban in Bihar , when there was no ban on liquor then also people were dying here,” he said.
“People have to be alert, so remember not to drink liquor,” he added, stating, “piyoge toh maroge (if you drink you will die)”.
“There is also a law to stop crime, but murders still happen,” the CM said. “Ask opposition wherever they have their government how many people are dying due to poisonous liquor.”
Some people consumed liquor till late on Tuesday at a local joint, and fell ill after returning home, the police said on Wednesday. The incident occurred at the Mashrak and Isuapur police station areas of Saran, as per Sunil Kumar, the state’s minister for prohibition.
Departmental action and transfer of Marhaura Sub-Divisional Police Officer, Yogendra Kumar was recommended and the Mashrak SHO Ritesh Mishra and Constable Vikesh Tiwari were suspended with immediate effect on Thursday, as per ANI.
Dr Sagar Dulal Sinha, the Civil Surgeon-cum-Medical Officer in-charge of Saran, said, “Most of them were declared dead at a hospital in Chhapra, the district headquarters. Some, who had been ill since Tuesday morning, died while undergoing treatment”.
Since it is suspected that all the deceased had consumed some intoxicant, after the post-mortem the viscera will be sent to a forensic laboratory at Muzaffarpur for examination, Sinha said.
The district administration, meanwhile, said it has constituted teams of officials, who will tour the affected villages and meet the bereaved families to track down those who might have served the illicit liquor.
As the incident sparked outrage, Bihar Excise Minister Sunil Kumar said that deaths due to consumption of spurious liquor have occurred in other states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab too, where there are no restrictions on the sale of liquor.
The issue led to a heated discussion in the Bihar Legislative assembly on Wednesday with opposition BJP leaders questioning the effectiveness of the Nitish Kumar government’s liquor ban in the state.
BJP MLAs entered the well, raising slogans against the government and demanding compensation to family members of those who lost their lives in Saran.
Losing his cool after Leader of Opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha raised questions, CM Nitish Kumar reportedly screamed at the BJP MLAs “Sharabi ho gaye ho tum…(you are drunk)”.
Opposition BJP MLAs staged a demonstration outside the assembly, blaming the “nexus” between police and illicit liquor traders for the deaths. “We have always supported the ban on liquor, even when it was introduced while we were in opposition. But its implementation has been a complete failure,” said former deputy chief minister Tarkishor Prasad.
Leader of the Opposition in Vidhan Parishad, Samrat Chaudhary said: “We are appalled to learn about the behaviour of the chief minister inside the assembly. He seems to have lost his moorings and should resign.”
“You can’t impose a ban. Through awareness and counselling you should make people understand that consumption of liquor is injurious to health,” ANI quoted former minister and RJD MLA Sudhakar Singh as saying.
The Nitish Kumar government banned consumption and sale of alcohol in 2016. The state has seen several hooch tragedy since then.
(With PTI inputs)
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