The death toll in the Chhapra Hooch Tragedy rose to 50 today.
Chhapra Hooch Tragedy
Numerous deaths in the Chhapra district of Bihar due to the consumption of spurious liquid after the ban on the sale and consumption of Alcohol.
The Nitish Government banned the sale and consumption of alcohol in April 2016.
On Thursday(15 December 39 death cases were reported due to the consumption of spurious liquid in Bihar and the death toll has been rapidly increasing since then.
The Station House Officer(SHO) Ritesh Mishra and Constable Vikesh Tiwari were suspended with immediate effect and 4 suspects were arrested.
A petition filed in the Supreme Court seeks an independent probe and formulation of action to curb the manufacturing, trading, and sale of illicit liquor. It also seeks compensation for the family of those who lost their lives in the tragedy.
A Special Investigation Team(SIT) with 31 Police officials headed by an additional SP deputy and three deputy SPs has been set up in the state.
The Saran District Magistrate said “We have conducted intensive raids across the district in the last 48 hours and nabbed 126 hooch traders. More than 4,000 liters of illicit liquor have also been seized.”
The Superintendent of Police, Santosh Kumar denied giving in-depth information saying “the matter is still under investigation, and disclosing much at this stage could hamper the probe.”
BJP strikes the Bihar Chief Minister
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s statement from the State Assembly yesterday “piyoge tho maroge” was marked as “insensitive and cruel” by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP).
BJP’s Aurangabad MP Sushil Kumar Singh held the Bihar government responsible for the deaths and termed the Hooch Tragedy as “mass murder”.
BJP’s Sushil Modi said “In the past six years, more than 1,000 people have died in Bihar due to spurious liquor. Is Bihar under police raj? The way Nitish Kumar behaved in the assembly isn’t graceful, he should apologize.”
Vijay Kumar Sinha, leader of the opposition in the Bihar Legislative Assembly accused the State government of hiding the actual number of deaths and said “By burning bodies without doing a post-mortem, they wanted to show less number of deaths. We’ve come here to know the truth.”
On Friday CM Nitish Kumar again reiterated the controversial statement in the assembly.
“No compensation will be given to people who died after drinking…We have been appealing- if you drink, you will die…those who talk in favor of drinking will not bring any good to you…”
