Bihar hooch tragedy: 3 more people, including supplier, arrested from UP

Three more people, including a supplier from Uttar Pradesh, were arrested by Bihar Police late on Sunday for allegedly selling the illicit country liquor that led to the death of 39 people in Saran, Siwan and Gopalganj districts last week, officials said.
The arrested people were identified as Mahesh Kumar Gupta, owner of Sriram Chemicals and Spirit company in Uttar Pradesh’s Deoria, and Deepak Choudhary and his brother Vikash, natives of Lalahadpur police station area of Saran district.
Saran DIG Nilesh Kumar told HT that during preliminary inquiry, the police found that Mahesh Gupta directly supplied the hooch to Deepak, who further moved the consignment to prime accused Mantu Singh alias Sikander Singh. The consignment was transported through small vehicles of a courier company.
“During the course of investigation, the police found that Gupta’s liquor licence was not up to date. The police have evidence regarding 25 online transactions between Mahesh Gupta and Deepak Choudhary over the last six months,” the DIG said, adding that Vikash was tech savvy, so he managed most of the online payments.
During interrogation, Deepak confessed that the consignment was directly unloaded at the house of Mantu Singh at Bali-Vishunpura locality under Mashrak police station of Saran.
Later, Mantu distributed it to Rudal Manjhi, Rajnikant and Mitul Manjhi, who manufacture hooch and supply to small retailers.
“The police are also probing the role of the courier agency and its staff. Two separate FIRs have been registered with Bhagwanpur (Siwan) and Mashrak (Saran) police station against the named accused. Police have arrested 21 accused (13 in Siwan and eight in Saran), including seven women, in connection with the hooch deaths,” the DIG said.
Police said the arrested women were part of a manufacturing and supply chain of illicit liquor in the two districts. Sleuths have also established a money trail of several lakhs linked to the illegal manufacture and supply of illicit liquor. The Economic Offences Unit of Bihar Police is likely to register an FIR against the arrested accused under provisions of the money laundering act.
Meanwhile, Saran SP Kumar Ashish said that Mantu Singh had stored methyl alcohol at his brick kiln in Bishanpur village under Bhagwanpur police station in Siwan. From there, it was supplied to small distributors in Siwan, Saran, and Gopalganj.
The SHO of Mashrak police station Dhananjai Rai, additional SHO Sunil Prasad and chowkidar Upendra Rai have been suspended for dereliction of duty pertaining to the suspected hooch deaths in their jurisdiction besides SHO of Janta Bazar police station Nirmala Suman and chowkidar Chandrika Manjhi were also suspended.
“In the last five days, Saran police launched a drive against the liquor smugglers/sellers/drunk men, raided 1,349 places and seized 5,289 litres of country made liquor from their possession. The police arrested 227 persons and destroyed 59,930 litres of half-finished liquor,” the Saran SP said.