››POLICE LAUNCHES CRACKDOWN, ARRESTS 175
LUCKNOW: Amid growing outrage over a large number of deaths due to consumption of illicit liquor, the Uttar Pradesh police on Saturday launched possibly the biggest crackdown on those behind manufacture and sale of the killer brew.
As much as 92,697 bulk litres of illicit liquor was seized from across the state as the police stepped up raids and registered 297 cases against suspects involved in the manufacture of hooch. The UP police confirmed that 175 accused were arrested from various parts of the state, the biggest such arrest in a day in the drive against spurious liquor.
An aide of chief minister Yogi Adityanath said the chief minister was monitoring the entire follow-up in the case. Ten policemen, including a police inspector, two sub- inspectors and constables, have already been placed under suspension and 47,700 kilogram of raw material used in manufacture of the killer brew destroyed on Saturday.
Adityanath also spoke to Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat for a concerted joint crackdown on liquor mafia. “We won’t spare the guilty.
We are focusing on the mastermind,” Adityanath said.
Since July 2017, – four months after the BJP government stormed to power in UP – more than 74 people have died due to illicit liquor in the state. There were 25 deaths in Azamgarh in July 2017, 11 deaths in Barabanki and Lucknow in January 2018, 16 deaths in Kanpur and five in Shamli in August 2018, before the latest tragedy. The chief minister reportedly hauled up the police officials and asked them to show “results”. “The excise department officials have been told to activate the intelligence network and ensure that all unscrupulous people involved in the killer trade are behind bars and their manufacturing bases seized and destroyed,” a senior official of the CM’s secretariat said. Thirtyseven police teams have been constituted in Saharanpur alone for a coordinated crackdown in the district where maximum loss of life was reported. “To minimise damage, police even issued appeals from temples and mosques, urging them not to consume illicit liquor. Appeals were also being made in areas adjoining the Uttarakhand border,” an official said. Only last year, a tragedy in Barabanki coincided with the state government’s move to amend the Excise Act and provide for death penalty to manufacturers of illicit liquor in cases where death occurs.
1700 LITRES SEIZED IN LUCKNOW ALONE
The Lucknow police on Friday night launched a massive crackdown to curb manufacturing and sale of illicit liquor on the city outskirts. In the last 24 hours, nearly 1700 litres of illicit liquor was seized and at least 38 people were arrested.