Death toll touches 20 in Gopalganj hooch tragedy

The death toll in the Gopalganj hooch tragedy rose to twenty on Thursday. According to an official, while four persons have lost their eyesight, several others are seriously ill and undergoing treatment in the hospitals of Motihari in the East Champaran district.

Patna (Bihar): The death toll in the Gopalganj hooch tragedy rose to twenty on Thursday. According to an official, while four persons have lost their eyesight, several others fell sick and are undergoing treatment in hospitals of Motihari in East Champaran district.

Meanwhile, state Mining and Geology Minister and BJP MLA of Gopalganj Janak Ram courted controversy when he termed the tragedy a "conspiracy" by the opposition to avenge Nitish Kumar's victory in the bypolls.

"People who died in liquor tragedy in Gopalganj belong to the BPL families. They were killed due to a conspiracy of opposition party leaders to defame the Nitish Kumar government. They resorted to the conspiracy on the occasion of Diwali and Chhath festival. The state government will take stringent action against the accused," Janak Ram said.

The incident occurred in Mohammadpur village on Tuesday evening. Gopalganj District Magistrate Dr Nawal Kishore Chaudhary said that the deaths happened under mysterious circumstances.

READ:Bihar Police arrests 16 for suspected hooch tragedy in West Champaran

"We have collected the samples from the victims' houses and sent them to the forensic lab for testing. We are also waiting for the post-mortem report of the deceased," Chaudhary further said, adding that four people were held in connection with the incident.

Amid the developments, Sanjiv Kumar, the SDPO of Gopalganj and Rakesh Kumar, the excise superintendent of Gopalganj town raided the village.

"The arrested persons are part of a liquor selling racket. The main accused Chathu Ram is absconding while his partner Mahesh Ram died after consuming poisonous liquor. We have recovered liquor packets and sealed their houses," Sanjiv Kumar said.

Umrawati Devi, the mother of one of the deceased Santosh Shah said, "He had consumed liquor on Tuesday evening and fell ill. We took him to the hospital where he died during treatment."

The other deceased were identified as Chotelal Shah, Mukesh Ram, Rambabu Yadav, Chunnu Pandey, Yogendra Ram, Mewalal Shah and one other.