72 people are dead in just 3 days, all of them consumed an adulterated liquor that they got in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
The police say that 36 people died in Saharanpur a district in Western Uttar Pradesh, 8 were dead in Kushinagar a district in eastern Uttar Pradesh, and 28 people died in Uttarakhand.
Police say that around 72 people are still admitted in hospitals, the doctors said that the number of the total deaths can rise.
The police of Uttar Pradesh say that the adulterated liquor was consumed first in Uttarakhand where people from Saharanpur went to attend a funeral, they also brought back some with them after a villager sold it to them. The government suspects that the liquor came from Bihar, a place where the adulterated liquor is not allowed.
AK Pandey the District Magistrate of Saharanpur said: “If early treatment was taken then the death toll would be much lesser. The second thing is that a man called Pintu came back with 30 pouches and sold them. One or two pouches have been recovered and anyone who drank from those pouches is also dead or in hospital.”
Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath said: “We are investigating the matter, whether it happened due to illicit liquor or it was mischief done by some people. Earlier, several Samajwadi leaders were arrested in such kind of mischievous incidents… We are paying Rs. 2 lakh compensation to the family of those who died, and Rs. 50,000 for people whose treatment is going on in hospitals.”
The police have followed the instructions of CM Yogi Adityanath, and have formed teams to track down the liquor manufacturer. The police have seized adulterated liquor in Banda and some parts of the states.
Dinesh Kumar the Superintendent of Saharanpur Police: “We will catch everyone involved, either this side of the border or that side. This will be an ongoing operation. We cannot deny the deaths but we will clamp down, we have been applying pressure on the border areas and we don’t know the manufacture of spurious liquor in our areas.”
The Government of Uttar Pradesh suspended the District Excise Inspector of Kushinagar and the District Excise Officer amongst many other officials.
The government has also suspended police officers. The UP police have arrested at least 30 people under the said incident, they will be charged under the Gangster Act and the National Security Act. The UP government also added that all the arrested people were involved in either manufacturing or distributing the banned liquor.
Across UP since 2011, a total of 175 people have died due to consuming adulterated liquor. 4 of the incidents have happened during the reign of PM Yogi.