Hooch tragedy leaves 42 dead in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand

A magisterial probe has been ordered into the incidents.

LUCKNOW: The toll in the spurious hooch case in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur and Kushinagar districts and Uttarakhand's Roorkee rose to 42 by Friday evening. 

In UP, 18 persons died in Saharanpur while six in Kushinagar on Friday alone. The postmortem was conducted for 11 persons, informed local authorities. The victims are being treated at district hospitals, medical colleges in Meerut, said DM Alok Pandey and SSP Dinesh Kumar in a joint press conference later in the day.

Authorities suspended the excise inspector, two head constables and two constables of the department. Besides, SP Kushinagar has sent four cops including SHO Tarya Sujan police station to police line. As per locals, there was a fair in the village on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya and a lot of people had consumed the spurious liquor. 

In Uttarakhand's Haridwar district, at least 23 people have died till Friday while eight others were battling for life at hospitals after allegedly consuming spurious liquor at a village. The state has suspended 17 personnel of excise and police departments.

A number of people took ill Thursday evening after consuming hooch served at the post death ceremony of Terahvi (13) of a person at Balupur village in Jhabrera area near Roorkee in Haridwar district, ADG (law and order) Ashok Kumar said.

Soon after drinking the liquor, people started vomiting and were rushed to nearby hospitals in Haridwar.

Taking strong note of some recent hooch deaths in the state, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Friday ordered a 15-day joint drive by excise and police officials against those involved in the spurious liquor trade.

The chief minister also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of each of those who died after consuming spurious liquor and help of Rs 50,000 each for those undergoing treatment in hospitals, an official release issued here said.

A magisterial probe has been ordered into the incident in Uttarakhand.