Sabotage suspected in Buldhana hooch deaths

DONGAR SHIVALI Buldhana, February 23: The heady intoxication with profiting from the bootlegging business here may have prompted desperate rivals to poison hooch in drums belonging to the local liquor don, which caused the death of six persons and left seven others battling for life.

The incident took place at Dongar Shivali village, 16 km from the district headquarters here on Sunday, when 13 villagers gathered together for their daily tipple. Police have detained at least a dozen of the 23 bootleggers operating liquor dens in the village, which has a population of about 7,000 people. Police suspect a collective conspiracy to sabotage the business of liquor don Raghunath Sonowane, whose outlet was the most frequented in the village.

The village sarpanch, Bhindu Sitaram Sawale, told The Indian Express that she plans to convene a meeting of the local Mahila Mandal to see whether they can contain the growing trade.

But Sawale, who was elected to the Gram Panchayat on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket but later switched to the Congress, says she is not sure what political sacrifice taking on the bootleggers in this poverty-striken village would entail for her. And with the support of just seven of the 11 Gram Panchayat members, she confides that she is loathe to finding out.