Spurious liquor: Five dead in 3 days at Shamli village, 6 cops suspended

Twenty-six people have been arrested with 375 litres of foreign liquor smuggled from Haryana and 174 litres of countrymade liquor.
Among the deceased is one Jugga Singh (50), who allegedly brought the illicit liquor to Kamalpur village and sold it to local residents.
“According to our investigation so far, on Monday, Jugga brought liquor and sold it to some locals who either consumed it or saved it for later. On Monday, one person, identified as Sanjay Valmiki (30), died, but no one informed the police. Next day, the police got information about the deaths of Jugga and one Indrapal (55). When they reached the village, locals said both of them had died of heart attack. The police should not have taken the information at face value. On the request of the locals, the bodies were cremated without post-mortem,” said Shamli SP Dinesh Kumar P.

“The next day (Wednesday), two more people — identified as Chandrapal (50) and Rajkumar (37) — died. A police team went to the village and sent the bodies for post-mortem. Soon, more people started falling ill and were hospitalised. When asked, locals revealed that all of them had consumed liquor they purchased from Jugga on Monday. An FIR was then registered on the basis of a complaint filed by the family of Indrapal,” the SP further said, adding that police are now trying to trace the supplier of the liquor.

Post-mortem reports did not confirm the cause of death. The viscera of two of the deceased have been preserved for further tests.
O P Chaudhary, the new SHO of Jhijhna police station, said the FIR was registered against unidentified people under the IPC section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and relevant sections of the Central Excise Act.