Amritsar Hooch Tragedy: Toll Rises To 23; Two Traders Held In Delhi, 15 Arrested So Far

Chandigarh: The Punjab police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested two accused from New Delhi’s Model Town in connection with the sale of spurious liquor that claimed 23 lives in Majitha sub-division of Amritsar over the past two days.

According to police, the accused, identified as Ravinder Jain, son of Nand Kishore Jain and Rishabh Jain, son of Ravinder Jain, were nabbed from Delhi for allegedly selling lethal raw material to Sahib Singh, one of the main accused in the case, who has already been arrested.

Sharing information further, director general of police, Punjab, Gaurav Yadav said on X that Sahib Singh was in contact with Rishabh Jain, as revealed through his WhatsApp chat history. ``It is suspected that Sahib Singh received a consignment from Jain, which was used to manufacture spurious liquor in #Punjab region’’, he said in his post.

Meanwhile, stating that 15 accused have been arrested so far, police said that the toll in the tragic incident which had risen to 21 till Tuesday, swelled to 23 on Wednesday. Both the deceased belonged to Bhangali village, police said, adding that most of the victims who hailed from Bhangali, Patalpuri, Marari Kalan and Therewal, worked as daily wagers.

It may be recalled that the police had nabbed the kingpin among 13 accused in the case earlier and suspended Majitha sub-division deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Amolak Singh and station house officer (SHO), Avtar Singh for the gross negligence in discharging their duties to check such rackets selling spurious liquor. The area excise and taxation officer (ETO) and department inspector were also suspended for their gross negligence.

According to police, the arrested accused included one Prabhjit Singh, a notorious bootlegger of the area, who had been supplied Methanol, used to dilute it with water to increase the quantity of the "country liquor'', a highly dangerous concoction for sale. The police further said that another arrested accused, Saheb Singh had procured the Methanol online.