Punjab: Sangrur hooch tragedy toll rises to 8, kingpin arrested

Additional director general of police (ADGP) Arpit Shukla told reporters in Sangrur that a liquor smuggling gang had been busted and its kingpin, Harmanpreet Singh, who would brew and sell the spurious liquor from his house, was arrested at Taipur village in Patran block.

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Nearly 200 litres of ethanol, 130 labelled bottles of spurious liquor, 80 bottles without labels, 4,600 empty bottles, a bottling machine and an alcohol meter were recovered from his house, Shukla said. “Harmanpreet had just started out making illicit liquor and it was the consignment he sold to other accused, who have also been arrested, that led to the deaths. We have seized the raw material being used,” he said.

Asked about the availability of ethanol that is sold only to registered buyers in such a huge amount, Shukla said investigation was on and raids were underway to arrest those who supplied the stock to Harmanpreet. “Our teams are in other states too to arrest the other accused,” he added.

Besides Harmanpreet, the other accused arrested are Sukhwinder Singh, Manpreet Singh and Gurlal Singh.

The police said that the accused would sell a bottle of liquor for ₹150 to the villagers. Gurlal got the illicit liquor from Harmanpreet and supplied it to Manpreet and Sukhwinder.

Manpreet and Sukhwinder belonged to Gujran village in Dirba block of Sangrur district, where the hooch deaths took place initially.

Two more victims, Kuldeep Singh of Dhandoli Khurd village and Gurdial Singh of Uppli village, died at Government Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, where they had been undergoing treatment on Thursday morning, taking the toll to eight.

Of the eight victims, five belonged to Gujran village, two to Dhandoli Khurd and one to Uppli village.

At present, 12 victims are undergoing treatment at the civil hospital in Sangrur and Government Rajindra Hospital.