Sangrur hooch tragedy: Punjab Police arrest two more accused

PTI

Chandigarh, March 24

Two more people were arrested in connection with the Sangrur hooch tragedy that claimed 20 lives, the Punjab police said on Sunday.

With this, a total of 10 people have been arrested so far, Deputy Inspector General (Patiala Range) Harcharan Singh Bhullar said.

The two accused were identified as Mangal Singh, a resident of Tibbi Ravidaspura in Sunam and Veeru Saini, a resident of Sunam, he said.

Among the eight arrested earlier were Soma Kaur, Rahul alias Sanju and Pardeep Singh alias Babi, all hailing from Chauwas in Cheema, and Gurlal Singh of the Ubhawal village in Sangrur.

Harmanpreet Singh of the Taipur village in Patiala, Arshdeep Singh alias Arsh of the Rogla village; and Manpreet Singh alias Mani and Sukhwinder Singh alias Sukhi, residents of the Gujjran village in Dirba, were the others held by the police.

A four-member special investigation team (SIT), led by Additional Director General of Police Gurinder Singh Dhillon, was set up on Saturday to probe the incident.

Investigation revealed that Veeru Saini bought four boxes of spurious liquor from Soma Kaur and sold two boxes to Mangal Singh and the other two to public.

Mangal Singh then sold his two boxes of spurious liquor to the people in the Tibbi Ravidaspura area.

The police have already registered three FIRs at Dirba, City Sunam and Cheema police stations under relevant sections, including 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and the Excise Act.

Addressing the media in Chandigarh on Saturday, ADGP Dhillon said accused Harmanpreet, after procuring methanol from a Noida-based factory, was preparing spurious liquor at his home and selling it after packing it in liquor bottles and putting the label of the liquor brand “Shahi” in Hindi.

The police had also found spurious liquor and other equipment used for manufacturing and labelling it from the possession of the accused.

Twenty people died due to suspected consumption of this spurious liquor in the Sangrur district.

Eleven people are undergoing treatment at Patiala's Rajindra Hospital and six at the Civil Hospital in Sangrur, officials said.

They added that the 20 casualties were reported from Gujran, Tibbi Ravidas Pura, and Dhandoli Khurd villages in Dirba and Sunam blocks in the Sangrur district.

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