Yamunanagar/ Ambala: The death toll due to the consumption of spurious liquor on November 8 has reached 14, with five additional deaths reported in Yamunanagar district on Friday, police said.
Of the total casualties, 12 are from Yamunanagar, and two are from Ambala.
SP Yamunanagar Ganga Ram Punia told media persons that seven people have been arrested in connection with the case while two others have been apprehended for allegedly manufacturing the liquor illegally in neighbouring Ambala district.
Asked about the source of the suspected spurious liquor, Punia said, the preliminary investigations have revealed that it was manufactured illegally, In this regard a separate FIR has been registered at Mullana area in Ambala district. The SP said that seven accused in the case have been arrested include Rocky a resident of village Peermajra used to supply liquor, Ramesh Bhindi resident of Mandebri, wine contractor Gaurav son of a JannayakJanta Party Raj Kuma, Mange Ram resident of Marupur a Congress leader, Pradeep a resident of village Kulpur, Kapil a resident of village Thambad in Ambala district. He said that two of them are local illegal vendors and the rest are connected with the illegal vend either as salesmen or for subletting the place. SHO, Mullana in Ambala district, Inspector Surender said two persons were arrested for illegally manufacturing liquor.
Meanwhile, SHO Mullsns said that illicit liquor was being manufactured illegally with a chemical (Ethnol) ENA used in distilleries in an abandoned factory in an isolated area in the middle of sugarcane fields from where the two arrested accused were involved in the illegal act and supplied this liquor in Yamunanagar district, while further investigations are on. The SHO said they received empty drums, empty bottles, stickers and other articles from the spot. Earlier on Wednesday, SP YamunanagarPunia, said that they received information about a death linked to suspected spurious liquor from a hospital in Yamunanagar. Police had launched an investigation and enquired in nearby villages.They found that three other people were cremated on Tuesday and two more on Wednesday from two villages in Yamunanagar district as suspected spurious liquor poisoning incidents died under suspicious circumstances. He said the families of the five deceased cremated the bodies without informing the police and no post-mortem examination could be conducted in these deaths,whereas the body of another deceased was sent to the government hospital for postmortem which confirmed death due to poisonous substance
Leaders of the political parties in opposition slam ruling Khattargovt in the state failed to learn lessons from past incidents.
The Opposition parties CongressAAP and INLD cornered the BJP-JJP alliance government in Haryana over elevent deaths in Yamunanagar and few others under treatment in hospitals due to suspected spurious liquor, saying the ManoharLalKhattar dispensation has failed to learn lessons from previous incidents. Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that the black trade of intoxicants is spreading in Haryana under the patronage of the present government. He said spurious liquor, drugs are continuously killing the people of the state and spoiling the career of youth addicted to such drugs.
Hooda said, deaths due to spurious liquor in Yamunanagar is the result of the failure of the government, because many such cases have come to light in the past. He said, in November 2020 more than 30 people died due to spurious liquor,within a span of four days in Panipat and Sonipat alone with three deaths reported in Faridabad three years ago. In November 2022, four people from Sonipat lost their lives due to spurious liquor, the former chief minister alleged that In the name of investigation a special investigation team formed by the government but the result of these investigations is never revealed. Hooda said that during the Congress tenure, Haryana was a state known for its milk products, which now has been replaced by spurious liquor and drugs and the trade jumped manifold. AAP Haryana state president and RajyaSabha MP Sushil Gupta too alleged that illegal vendors are running all over Haryana and illegal liquor is being sold in every street. Indian National Lok Dal’s senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala demanded that the government should hold a judicial inquiry into the alleged spurious liquor deaths.
