Mumbai hooch tragedy: Eight cops suspended, three arrested as toll crosses 50

Mumbai: Eight personnel of Malwani police station were suspended on Friday in connection with hooch tragedy in which 53 people lost their lives.

Mumbai Police Commissioner confirmed the suspensions adding that 28 people were fighting for their lives after drinking the toxic home-made liquor.

Dhananjay Kulkarni, Mumbai police deputy commissioner, said the victims had started to fall ill on Wednesday morning after consuming the illicit moonshine.

Fifity-three people have died and 28 are receiving treatment in hospital after they consumed spurious liquor, the commissioner said.

"Crime branch is investigating and three suspects are being held in custody," Kulkarni said.

The three men, aged 30, 47, and 50, were arrested on Thursday night, he added.

Kulkarni said it was the worst case of its kind to be recorded in the western Indian city in more than a decade.

"Such a tragedy happened in 2004 when more than 100 deaths took place," he explained, referring to the "Vikhroli hooch tragedy", named by the local press after the suburb where the victims lived.

The victims of the latest incident were residents of a slum in the suburb of Malad West, in the north of the city.

Devendra Fadnavis, chief minister of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, ordered an immediate inquiry.

In January, more than 31 people died near in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, after drinking a lethal batch of home-brew.

Police arrested 12 people in October 2013 after more than three dozen villagers died from toxic liquor also in Uttar Pradesh.

In 2011 nearly 170 people died in the eastern state of West Bengal after drinking moonshine.

(With AFP Inputs)

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