The Punjab police on Friday arrested two key absconders in the hooch tragedy while adding murder charges to the FIRs against all prime accused in the case. With the arrest of father-son duo Harjit Singh and Shamsher Singh of Pandori Gola, the total number of arrests in the case has gone up to 54. The two have also been booked on murder charges, apart from Kashmir Singh and Satnam Singh, said Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta.
More than 887 raids have been conducted since July 31, when the first deaths in the case were reported in the three affected districts (303 in Tarn Taran, 330 in Amritsar Rural and 254 in Batala), said the DGP.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, while visiting Tarn Taran on Friday to meet families affected by the tragedy, said its perpetrators would not be spared at any cost. He said special prosecution teams would be deputed to vigorously pursue the cases and the properties of those found guilty confiscated. He also announced enhancement of the compensation being given to the families of victims from ₹2 lakh to ₹5 lakh.
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The Shiromani Akali Dal termed Capt. Amarinder’s visit as a mere photo op. Party leader Bikram Singh Majithia pointed out that the Chief Minister didn’t visit Amritsar and Batala, the two other major sites of the hooch tragedy.
The Akalis also staged a march in Chandigarh against the Congress government, demanding a probe by a sitting High Court judge or the Central Bureau of Investigation into the hooch tragedy and the illicit liquor trade in the State.
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Mr. Majithia alleged that the State had suffered a loss of ₹5,600 crore in excise revenue and now 113 lives have been lost on account of the illegal liquor trade. “The Congress government is trying to divert attention from the real issue by taking action against bootleggers manufacturing country liquor even though the fact is that denatured spirit procured illegally from distilleries was responsible for the tragedy,” he said.