The death toll in the Mumbai hooch tragedy has risen up to 97, reportedly, as the state government suspended four excise department officials.
The second worst tragedy of the kind in the past 11 years in Maharashtra state has put 20 behind bars, seven police officials in suspension, and 31 on hospital beds in critical condition.
Out of the 20 arrests, 15 were made by Mumbai police and five by the crime branch. The arrested people have been sent to police custody till June 26.
The incident happened on Wednesday when residents of Laxmi Nagar slum in Mumbai consumed country made liquor in a bar in Malwani area.
Incidents like these have happened in various states in the past decade. Production of poorly distilled country liquor has been in news earlier as well.
On Sunday, we searched D’Mello’s (recent arrest)residence and found around 1,100 litres of spurious liquor in several barrels. The sheer quantity of the liquor suggests a large-scale and highly organised racket, and we are probing further.
–Crime Branch Official to The Indian Express
Here is a timeline of the major hooch tragedies in India in the past few years.
January 2015: Toxic liquor claims 32 lives in Lucknow and Unnao districts of Uttar Pradesh
October 2013: At least 40 people die in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh district
February 2012: At least 35 people are killed after consuming spurious liquor in Mahidharpada area of Cuttack in Odisha
December 2011: Over 170 people, mostly rickshaw-pullers, labourers and hawkers, are killed in Sangrampur village in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district
October 2010: At least 12 people are killed and nearly 15 fall ill after consuming spurious country liquor in Kaalwan village in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district
September 2010: The toll in hooch tragedy in Kerala’s Malappuram district is 26
March 2010: At least 35 people die after consuming spurious liquor in Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr districts of Uttar Pradesh in pre-and post-Holi celebrations
February 2010: At least 13 people died after drinking moonshine in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi district
January 2010: 14 people die in East Godavari district of coastal Andhra Pradesh
September 2009: Death toll from hooch tragedy in Uttar Pradesh is 29
July 2009: Major hooch tragedy in Ahmedabad claims 136 lives
May 2009: At least 20 people are killed in a hooch tragedy in West Bengal’s East Midnapore district
March 2009: 12 people die due to drinking hooch at Brahmpuri Colony in Southwest Delhi’s Sagarpur
January 2009: 27 people died in Kolkata after consuming poisonous country-made liquor at Khidirpore port area in southwest Kolkata.
May 2008: Death toll in hooch tragedy in Karnataka is 180
March 2006: The death toll in Orissa liquor tragedy is at 22. The deaths and illnesses were reported mainly from the five hamlets of Badahuma, Khajuria Pali, Sana Ramachandrapur, Madshurchuan and Baunsiapada in Ganjam district, about 130 km from Bhubaneswar.
December 2004: Atleast 87 people, including two women, die after consuming spurious liquor in Mumbai’s suburban Vikhroli.
October 2001: Illicit liquor kills 18 people in Nithari village in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida.
(With inputs from The News Minute.)
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