A team of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on December 20 arrived in Bihar's Patna to probe the hooch tragedy.
The NHRC team comprises nine members who will investigate the tragic incident reported last week from Bihar's Saran district in which over 60 people were killed due to consuming spurious liquor at a local joint.
After the deaths, angry villagers blocked the Masrakh Hanuman Chowk on Bihar State Highway 90 and raised slogans against the district administration.
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The incident also triggered a political slugfest in the Bihar Assembly, with Opposition leaders mounting a strong attack on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the spate of spurious liquor deaths.
Constitutional institutions being ‘misused’: JD(U) MP
Meanwhile, JD(U) MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh raised objections to the NHRC probing the Bihar hooch tragedy, charging that constitutional institutions were being misused.
Mr. Singh, who is also the president of the JD(U), asked in Lok Sabha why the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is probing the Chhapra hooch tragedy.
“National Human Rights Commission has informed the Bihar government that the hooch deaths in Chhapra will be probed by them. How did the human rights commission come into this?” the Munger MP said.
“Constitutional institutions are being misused,” he charged.
However, BJP MP from Patna Sahib and former union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad backed the NHRC probe and said the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights should also carry out a probe.
“Over 100 people died of poisonous liquor. There was no post-mortem, viscera was not kept. NHRC should go there, Child commission should also go because those who died includes children, Dalits, backward groups.... This is a serious issue,” Mr. Prasad said.
He was supported by Patliputra MP Ram Kripal Yadav.
Chirag Paswan (LJP), meanwhile, demanded the President’s Rule in Bihar alleging that the State government is trying to suppress the incidents of death due to spurious liquor and the leader of Mahagatbandhan is sitting quiet.
Janardan Singh Sigriwal (BJP) demanded compensation for people who died in the hooch tragedy in Bihar.
He said the NHRC, child rights commission, and National Commission for Women should investigate the hooch tragedy. The Nitish Kumar government on Monday put the number of deaths in the Saran hooch tragedy at 38. Opposition BJP leaders have claimed that the toll may have crossed 100.
