Motihari: The death toll in yet another hooch tragedy in Bihar's Champaran reached 26 on Monday after the doctors declared four more people dead after the initial toll of 22 lives. The incident, reported from the Mothari village of the area, is highly suspected to have occurred because of the consumption of spurious liquor, further leaving about 20 people injured and currently under treatment at several hospitals across the district.
Meanwhile, in a significant decision, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced an ex-gratia worth Rs 4 lakhs for the families of all the victims of hooch tragedies since 2016. "We have banned liquor in the state but these incidents keep happening, and it is quite sad that people die. We can punish the alive, but the dead leave their families bereaved, and most of them are extremely poor," the CM said while speaking to the media.
"We have decided that we will grant a compensation of Rs 4 lakhs to the families of all those who have died due to consumption of spurious liquor since 2016. We will consider all the cases since 2016. We have come to this decision in a meeting held two days back," the CM added.
As informed by SP Kantesh Kumar Mishra, the district police have suspended the SHOs of Turkauliya, Harsiddhi, Sugauli and Paharpur police stations and Raghunathpur outpost on the charge of dereliction of duties. "With four more deaths in the last ten hours, the toll has now increased to 26. Besides, five station house officers of police stations concerned have been suspended after the incident," Mishra said.
Some local sources have claimed that the administration is trying to hide the actual number of deaths caused due to the tragedy as some bodies have been cremated by the families of the deceased without postmortem or the knowledge of the administration. As per the data available with the administration, the deceased have been identified as Dhrup Paswan (48), Ashok Paswan (44), Rameshwar Ram (35) and his father Mahendra Ram, Chotu Kumar (19), Vindeshwari Paswan, Jokhu Singh (19) of Laxmipur village, Abhishek Yadav (22), Gokula, Jasinpur, Dhruv Yadav (23) of Jasinpur, Sahni (32) and his father Ganesh Paswan, Laxman Manjhi (33), Naresh Paswan (24) of Turkaulia, Sona Lal Patel (48) of Turkaulia and Parmendra Das and Naval Das.
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Disciplinary actions were taken against 11 police personnel, including nine chowkidars, on Sunday, SP Mishra said, adding that the district police have so far registered five cases, while the investigation is still underway.
The East Champaran police have also arrested 80 people for allegedly being involved in the illegal trade of liquor in the district. Huge quantities of spurious liquor and other related chemicals were seized during searches at more than 600 places in different parts of Motihari where deaths due to the consumption of illicit alcohol were first reported on April 15.
Police recovered 370 litres of country-made liquor, 50 litres of spirit and 1,150 litres of other chemicals used in the manufacturing of spurious liquor," the administration said in a statement on Sunday.
The opposition BJP termed the hooch tragedy in Motihari as a "mass murder by the Nitish Kumar government". Leader of Opposition in the Bihar assembly, Vijay Kumar Sinha, had on Sunday accused the state administration of "protecting liquor mafias who are associated with the ruling JD(U) and the RJD".
The party will approach the National Human Rights Commission and other such central bodies to conduct a "probe into the hooch tragedy", former state BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal said. The Nitish Kumar government imposed a ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol on April 5, 2016. Notably, incidents of smuggling of liquor continue to be reported from the state, notwithstanding the ongoing drive against bootleggers.
