Journalism of Courage
Days after six people died in Dehradun after they allegedly consumed countrymade liquor, Uttarakhand Police on Monday arrested a BJP leader from the city named Ajay Sonkar in connection with his alleged role in supply of the illicit liquor.
Sonkar was on the run after his name surfaced in the incident, which was reported on September 20.
Hours before Sonkar’s arrest, Uttarakhand BJP expelled him from the party’s primary membership.
Dehradun SSP Arun Mohan Joshi said Sonkar had fled to Haridwar and planned to surrender in a Dehradun court on Monday but was arrested before that.
Confirming Sonkar’s expulsion, BJP’s Dehradun mahanagar unit president Vinay Goyal said Sonkar was vice-president of the party’s mandal unit in Dehradun and had joined BJP after the 2017 Assembly polls. He had contested the Assembly polls as an Independent candidate from Rajpur Road constituency.
Goyal said Sonkar was municipal corporator as a Congress candidate in the past.
Sonkar has been booked under IPC Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 328 (causing hurt by means of poison, etc., with intent to commit offence). But the police are waiting for viscera examination report of the three deceased to confirm the exact cause of death.
Another accused in the case, Gaurav, who was arrested on Saturday, had told the police that he had bought country liquor from Sonkar in the past.
After his arrest, Sonkar told the police that he used to buy country liquor from licensed shops at low price and sold it at higher price through his agents.
SSP Joshi said a team of experts from IIT-Roorkee has been engaged to examine possibilities of contamination in country liquor that was sold to affected people.
