Bihar spurious liquor toll touches 34, but dist admins still in denial over claims by relatives

Banka DM Suharsa Bhagat said in a statement: “Sub-divisional police officer conducted a thorough probe and after relatives of those who died did not want postmortem to be conducted, cremation was done. In none of the cases, we got any lead of death because of consuming spurious liquor.”

Relatives of several victims had told local reporters and public representatives about spurious liquor consumption by their kin during Holi. LJP leader Mrinal Shekhar, who had unsuccessfully contested from Amarpur Assembly segment in 2020 polls, said: “Now that the district administration has been ruling out hooch tragedy, let it announce compensation to next of kin of each who died.” Shekhar said it would been better if postmortem was conducted and truth allowed to come out. JD(U) minister Jayant Manjhi, who represents Amarpur, has not issued any statement on the suspected hooch tragedy. A Banka resident getting treated in a Bhagalpur hospital, said: “I drank twice before Holi.”

In Bhagalpur, where the death toll touched 16, only two bodies were sent for postmortem. Bhagalpur sub-divisional police officer Dinesh Chandra Srivastava said: “There had been complaints of stomach ache and vomiting in all cases.”

Congress Bhagalpur MLA Ajit Sharma, however, demanded a probe into the incident and termed it a failure of the excise policy of the government.