Merchants of death had supplied 1,300 litres of killer hooch in city

The Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) of the Ahmedabad police had arrested Kahar from Odhav area late on Wednesday. He was likely to be produced before a local court late on Thursday night.

Sources in the DCB said that Kahar had confessed to having supplied 775 litres of the killer hooch in the city himself. “He has told us that the hooch was sourced from a notorious bootlegger in Mehmedabad in Kheda district. Kahar had alone supplied 20 cans each of 30-litre capacity and 175 litres killer hooch in Odhav,Bapunagar,Rakhiyal and Amraiwadi areas,” said a source in the DCB.

The official added that Arwind Solanki,who had supplied the country-made liquor in Majoor Gam area and died on the first day of the tragedy,might also have sourced the killer brew from Mehmedabad. “This is,however,a matter of investigation,” he added.

This has scary implications,because the spurious liquor distributed across the city could mean more deaths,with many feared unreported across the state. Kahar has further told his investigators that another 18 cans of the same hooch consignment (about 540 litres) were supplied to various other liquor stalls in the city by one of his accomplices.

Thirty-five-year-old Kahar,who belongs to Uttar Pradesh,has over 15 cases of prohibition registered against him. He has been arrested under PASA twice. He was in judicial custody until February this year,when a city-court granted him bail,after which he resumed his bootlegging business. He used to work for another notorious bootlegger,Raju Thotia,who is at present lodged in a Rajkot jail.

The issue assumes significance as retail distributors of country-made liquor normally dilute the concentrated hooch with water before selling it off to consumers. Normally,one litre of concentrated hooch is mixed with five litres of plain water before packaging it into small pouches.