In dry Bihar, spurious liquor claims four lives

Bihar, where prohibition is in force, suffered a shock when three persons died after consuming spurious alcohol near Patna and seven boozers were arrested from a posh hotel in the State capital.

According to police, three friends consumed spurious liquor in the Rakabganj area near Patna on Tuesday night and when their condition deteriorated they were admitted to a local hospital where they died.

Body cremated

Fearing police action, the family of one of the victims, Manoj Gope, cremated the body on Tuesday night itself. But the bodies of other two — Umeshwar Rai and Ashok Das — were cremated on Wednesday morning. The police could not get the bodies for post-mortem.

“We met the family members of those who died in the hooch tragedy and detained two persons … action will be taken against those who supplied the liquor,” said a police official.

In another development, reports said a youth died while four others fell ill after consuming spurious liquor in Gaya on Tuesday. Two of them were admitted to the Anugrah Narayan Medical Hospital while two others are being treated at a private hospital at an unknown location fearing police action.

Police said that during a raid, seven persons, all businessmen, were arrested from a posh hotel in Patna for consuming liquor on Tuesday night.

Some of them had come from Surat in Gujarat to attend a marriage ceremony of a relative in Patna.

The police sent all of them to jail. “Under the new State Excise Act, they could face a jail term of five to seven years,” said a police official.

CM’s warning

Hours before the raid, at a programme in Bhagalpur, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar warned policemen that they would be barred from field posting for 10 years if they failed to check liquor consumption in their areas.

Mr. Kumar is scheduled to visit Dhanbad in Jharkhand on May 10 and Lucknow on May 15 to address women’s programmes on prohibition. “Liquor should be banned across the country … it should be a social movement,” said the Chief Minister.

There have been apprehensions that Bihar could witness a hooch tragedy any day after prohibition came into effect on April 5. “The government should be highly alert and gear up for any major tragedy as the sudden ban on alcohol will lead people, mostly the poor, to consume spurious liquor,” said social scientist Hitendra Anupam.