Punjab Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta on Tuesday said the State Police had arrested the Ludhiana-based paint store owner, allegedly responsible for triggering the chain of events that led to the hooch tragedy which ultimately resulted in the death of 111 persons across three districts.
He said accused Rajeev Joshi was nabbed late on Monday evening. Joshi had disclosed that he had supplied the three drums of methanol (methyl alcohol) that were used to make the spurious methanol based alcohol. The police is tracking the leads given by Joshi, who was reportedly procuring various types of alcohol and spirits from various places in Punjab and Delhi, he said.
With the arrest of Joshi and two other key players in the entire tragic saga, the number of arrests in the case has gone up to 40. He added that the arrests had followed 563 raids conducted in the three districts since July 31, under five FIRs registered in the case (one in Batala, 2 in Amritsar Rural and 2 in Tarn Taran).
