3 more deaths, Sangrur hooch tragedy toll eight

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Sushil Goyal

Sangrur, March 21

Three more persons who had fallen sick after allegedly consuming spurious liquor in the Gujjran area, near Dirba, died late last night. They were identified as Gursewak Singh (31) of Uppli village and Kirpal Singh (66) and Kuldeep Singh (25) of Dhandauli Khurd village.

With this, the number of casualties in the case rose to eight. Dr Kirpal Singh, Civil Surgeon, Sangrur, said four more patients, all from Gujjran village, were under treatment and their condition was stable.

Parminder Singh Dhindsa, former state Finance Minister, who today visited the Civil Hospital here, demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident and compensation for the bereaved families.

Meanwhile, the police arrested the alleged mastermind of the spurious liquor trade, Harmanpreet Singh of Taipur village, Patran, in Patiala district.

Special DGP Arpit Shukla said a police team raided his house and seized equipment used for manufacturing spurious liquor and labelling bottles. The seized material included 200 litres of ethanol, bottling machine, 80 bottles containing spurious liquor without labels, 130 bottles with labels, 4,500 empty bottles, 4,600 bottle caps and a car, he said, adding the police had earlier arrested three persons in the case.

Shukla said a magisterial inquiry led by Dirba SDM had been ordered by the Sangrur DC, while the police had also formed an SIT to probe the matter.