Lauriya PS team changed, 16 hooch vendors nabbed

BETTIAH

: With top state excise and prohibition officials hitting ground zero, the state government’s seriousness regarding the West Champaran hooch tragedy became further evident on Saturday as the police arrested 16 hooch sellers and cracked the whip against errant cops. Altogether 16 persons died after allegedly consuming hooch in the district since Tuesday night.

“The SHO of Lauriya police station has not returned from leave even though such an incident has occurred. He has thus been closed to the police lines along with the entire constabulary of the police station. The acting SHO and three chowkidars have been suspended," Champaran Range DIG Lallan Mohan Prasad told TOI late Saturday evening, adding that the police have identified the big sharks involved in the illicit liquor trade. "We caanot disclose the names at present and we are working on leads to nab the kingpins," he said.

Earlier on Saturday, IG (Prohibition) Amritraj and excise commissioner B Kartikeya Dhanji reached Bettiah and held a closed-door meeting with the district civil and police officials. "A new team has been placed in the Lauriya PS and we have intensified raids in which 16 hooch vendors have been nabbed so far," the DIG said.

Interestingly, an IPRD-Bettiah press release said the officials revisited the homes of the deceased and again took their statements, this time in writing. From the kin of merely four bereaved families that had earlier owed their loss to hooch consumption by the victims, when the DM and other officials visited the affected villages in Saturday’s fresh interactions, twelve bereaved families accepted that the departed had partaken liquor.

District magistrate Kundan Kumar on Saturday directed the civil surgeon to issue an advisory to all government and private hospitals and clinics to immediately report cases showing symptoms of liquor consumption and/or poisoning to the local police station and excise officials.