Ludhiana businessman linked to 111 hooch deaths held

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Police has arrested the Ludhiana-based paint store owner allegedly responsible for triggering the chain of events that ultimately resulted in the death of 111 persons in the hooch tragedy case across three districts. Rajeev Joshi was arrested late on Monday evening.
DGP Dinkar Gupta said the accused had disclosed that he supplied three drums of methanol (methyl alcohol) to Prabhdeep Singh which were used to make the spurious methanol-based alcohol.The police were tracking the leads given by Joshi, who was reportedly procuring alcohol and spirits from various places in Punjab and Delhi.
The total number of arrests in the case has gone up to 40 – 21 from Tarn Taran, 10 from Amritsar rural and nine from Batala. As many as 563 raids were conducted in three districts since July 31in five FIRs registered in the case - one in Batala, two each in Amritsar rural and Tarn Taran.
Gupta said one absconding accused, identified as Dharminder of Hathi Gate in Batala, was arrested on Tuesday in the case related to the 13 deaths in Batala and 50 litres of alcohol was seized from him.
He said the police had launched a major state-wide crackdown on spurious liquor in the past 24 hours leading to the arrest of 184 persons in 238 cases.
Atotal of 7,275 litres of illicit liquor and 32,470 kgs of lahan has been seized, along with eight working stills. The liquor and lahan seizures were reported from in and around the Satluj river in Ludhiana police commissionerate, some areas of Amritsar rural, Tarn Taran, Anandpur Sahib and Nurpur Bedi areas.
The arrest of Joshi and other criminals has led the police to identify some more key people involved in the manufacture and distribution of spurious liquor, including the supply chain of methanol which led to the deaths in Tarn Taran, Amritsar and Batala. The DGP said that with Satnam’s arrest, the Tarn Taran module of the mafia involved in this case had been busted and at least five more suspects in the district have been identified and raids were being conducted to nab them. The Batala module had been smashed with the arrest of Darshana and Triveni, who were procuring liquor from Gobinder Singh of Jandiala who was further linked up with Satnam Singh in the illicit supply chain. The key accused in Amritsar rural, including Balwinder Kaur, was already under arrest. She had also procured the spurious alcohol from Gobinder.
Chemical examination of the drum residues and 70 litres of alcohol packed in pouches found in a ditch in Pandori Gola at the instance of Satnam Singh was being done through the excise department, the DGP added. In Patiala, police registered 15 cases and arrested 10 persons on Tuesday as it continued its crackdown on the illicit liquor trade for the fourth consecutive day.