Liquor mafioso, 10 others held

: Eleven people, liquor mafioso Anil Chaudhary, named in the cases registered at five police stations of Aligarh district in connection with the recent hooch tragedy were arrested on Sunday.

However, two people carrying a reward of Rs. 50,000 each are still at large. Chaudhary has political connections and is said to be the kingpin of the spurious liquor trade in the area.

To note, dozens of people died, and many were hospitalised after allegedly consuming spurious liquor purchased from a government-run liquor shop in Karsua, Andla, Chairath and Jawan villages of Aligarh on Friday.

“Cases have been registered at five police stations of Aligarh district and of those named, 11 have been arrested. Police are in hot pursuit of two absconders, Rishi Pal Sharma and Bipin Yadav, on whom reward of Rs. 50,000 each has been declared,” said DIG Aligarh range Deepak Kumar.

Confusion prevailed over the number of deaths as the district administration claimed that there were 25 confirmed deaths.

Chief medical officer of Aligarh Dr BPS Kalyani said that postmortem examination reports of 25 victims indicated death due to alcohol poisoning while viscera of 26 others had been preserved for further testing. Postmortem examination had been conducted on 51 bodies from the affected area, he added.

Aligarh district magistrate Chandra Bhushan Singh has ordered a magisterial probe by ADM (execution) and the report is to be submitted within 15 days.

On Saturday, the district magistrate had said that a probe into the matter was initiated, and National Security Act (NSA) would be invoked against those found guilty in the inquiry.