Liquor deaths

Dehat district Singh said, adding to suspicion that bootleggers could be misusing Madhuri brand.

The family of one of the dead, Chunna Kushwaha, allowed a post-mortem examination only after the DM and SP Ratan Kant Pandey assured them of action.

Singh said a case was registered against the contractor and salesman of the shop.

Preliminary investigation found that licensed shops in Kanpur and Kanpur Dehat districts were selling illicit liquor.

Police late on Saturday raided a warehouse of one Vinay Singh, a grandson of former minister Ram Swarup Singh Gaur, in Fazalgunj and recovered chemicals and a stock of liquor. Singh gave himself up to police after Kanpur Dehat deaths. His brother, Neeraj, was arrested Fazalgunj on Sunday in connection with Sachendi deaths. Neeraj had unsuccessfully contested the 2017 assembly election on a Samajwadi party ticket.

An FIR was lodged against Shyam Balak, the licence holder of the Sachendi liquor shop, Kanpur’s senior superintendent of police Akhilesh Kumar said.

Four people were detained and one arrested while Balak was on the run, police said, adding a regional excise inspector was suspended and liquor samples sent for tests. CM Yogi Adityanath announced an assistance of ₹2 lakh each to the next of the kin of the dead, an official statement said.