Mumbai: The Thane Police Crime Branch on Monday arrested an accused who was wanted by the Mumbai Police in connection with the Malwani hooch tragedy that had claimed 106 lives in 2015.
Thane Police officers said the accused was arrested while they were investigating a hooch racket busted in Mumbra late last year.
“We had busted a racket in which hooch was being brewed in the forest areas in Shil Diaghar. Further inquiries had indicated that a man from Madhya Pradesh had supplied the chemicals for the hooch. We were working on this information when we received a tip-off that the same suspect was also the methanol supplier in the 2015 Malwani hooch tragedy,” said an officer with the Thane Crime Branch.
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Accordingly, a team of police officers went to Indore and picked up the suspect, Dharmendra Singh Tomar (39).
Officials said that Tomar’s interrogation confirmed his involvement in the Shil Diaghar and Malwani cases, after which he was placed under arrest and brought to Thane.
“We will hand him over to the Mumbai Police after we complete our investigations against him,” the officer said.
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In June 2015, over 100 residents of Laxmi Nagar in Malwani had to be rushed to hospitals in Goregaon and Vile Parle when they started collapsing after consuming hooch sold at illegal liquor dens. A total of 106 victims lost their lives and several others were left permanently blind in the aftermath. The case was transferred to the Mumbai Police Crime Branch, which arrested 14 people in connection with the case.
Crime Branch officials had said that while hooch is traditionally composed of illegally brewed liquor mixed with water and spirit, which is either ethanol or methanol, the accused had simply mixed methanol with water to cut costs, and added cardamom essence to mask the strong smell. Tragedy struck when the accused supplied a batch of diluted methanol which did not have enough water in it, said officials.