This story is from August 4, 2020

Hooch deaths are 'murder', no one complicit will be spared: Punjab CM Amarinder Singh

Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said that the deaths due to hooch were "sheer murder" and the killers will not get away with it. Asserting that he will finish the liquor mafia in the state, he said no one, whether a politician or a public servant will be spared if found complicit in the hooch tragedy.
Hooch deaths are 'murder', no one complicit will be spared: Punjab CM Amarinder Singh
Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh
CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said that the deaths due to hooch were "sheer murder" and the killers will not get away with it. Asserting that he will finish the liquor mafia in the state, he said no one, whether a politician or a public servant will be spared if found complicit in the hooch tragedy.
Referring to the death of 111 people (83 from Tarn Taran, 15 from Amritsar and 13 from Batala) due to spurious liquor, Amarinder said in a video message, "They knew this could kill and yet they supplied the poison to innocent people.
They deserve no mercy".

Amarinder said nobody will be allowed to get away with killing people with the poison called spurious liquor.
The chief minister had put the entire force of the Punjab Police to crack down on the mafia.
"Some unscrupulous elements took advantage of the police focus on battling the Covid pandemic to satiate their greed at the cost of the lives of Punjabis," he said.
While the state government was busy battling Covid, which has claimed 449 lives in the state so far, the liquor mafia seized the opportunity to play with the lives of our people, he added.

Castigating the opposition for exploiting the tragedy for their petty political interests, the chief minister said this is not the time to play politics but to stand by the government in its efforts to eliminate the mafia that is indulging in such acts. He flayed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over its dharnas against the hooch tragedy and asked how this would help in battling the mafia or supporting the bereaved families.
Amarinder pointed out that such tragedies have been taking place through the years across states, under different political dispensations. In 2019 had seen three hooch tragedies, all in the BJP-ruled states of Assam, UP and Uttarakhand, claiming 168, 97 and 30 lives. In 2016, 16 people had died in Janata Dal(United)-ruled Bihar while in 2015, BJP-led Maharashtra had lost 102 lives to hooch in Mumbai and under the Trinamool Congress rule in West Bengal, as many as 167 people had similarly died due to consumption of spurious liquor.
Almost every year, India sees some of the hooch tragedy, which has nothing to do with who is in power in the affected state, said Amarinder.
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About the Author
Vibhor Mohan

Vibhor Mohan is Special Correspondent with The Times of India’s Punjab Bureau at Chandigarh. He holds post-graduate degrees in Mass Communication and English and has nearly 15 years of experience, having covered important stations in Punjab. He covers news concerning Punjab politics, NRI affairs and the power sector, besides specializing in writing on architecture, especially on the works of Le Corbusier, the man who gave India its first designed city – Chandigarh.

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