LUCKNOW: Nine persons lost their lives and 29 others have falled ill after consuming spurious liquor in Pure Chatta Singh village under Paharpur Majra in Maharajganj police station area of Rae Bareli district, 80 km from the state capital.
The tragedy occurred on Tuesday night when four persons had died after consuming spurious liquor at a function. However, the toll went up to nine on Wednesday.
According to Rae Bareli District Magistrate Vaibhav Srivastava, the body of the deceased was sent for an autopsy and a probe was ordered into the incident. An FIR has also been lodged against the licensed shop which had supplied the liquor to the villagers.
As per the police sources, those who lost life were identified as Chandra Gopal, 45, Raj Babu, 30, Qasim, 35, Saroj, 40, Pankaj, 38, Ram Sumer, 46, Sukhrani, 60, Bansi Lal, 50 and Kallu, 53. Two of the deceased Raj Babu and Qasim had come to the village from Chhatarpur, MP and Hamirpur respectively. The rest of the victims belonged to Raebareli.
According to district police officials, around 40 persons had consumed the liquor in the function. Seven persons including an elderly woman had died in the wee hours while two others lost life at the local Community Health Centre.
According to Raebarli police chief Shlok Kumar, the FIR was lodged against Dhirendra Pal Singh, the local liquor shop owner and his executive under charges of murder, food adulteration, mixing and selling noxious substances with intoxicants. The shop owner along with his salesman is absconding and police teams are out to nab them, said the SP.
Meanwhile taking cognisance of the issue, UP DGP Mukul Goel directed IG Lucknow range Lakshmi Singh to visit the spot and conduct a thorough probe into the incident. On the other, Additional Chief Secretary, Excise, Sanjay Bhoosreddy said that action would be taken against district excise officers including Rajeshwar Maurya who would be charge-sheeted while Excise Inspector Ajay Kumar and constable Dhirendra Srivastava were suspended in connection with the incident.