Gaya hooch tragedy main accused surrenders before court

Rajkumar Yadav alias Mantu Yadav, brother of RJD MLA Surendra Yadav, who is the main accused in the hooch tragedy in Bihar's Gaya district that claimed at least 20 lives, today surrendered before a court.

Yadav arrived in the district court virtually unnoticed and surrendered before the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) RNS Pandey.

Superintendent of police, City, Akhtar Hussain said that the police will apply for his police remand for two days to facilitate his questioning.

The police had earlier unsuccessfully raided various places in Koderma, Hazaribagh, Giridih and Dhanbad districts of Jharkhand and Patna and Gaya districts of Bihar to nab Yadav, who was hiding after a case was lodged against him at Rampur police station following the death of at least 20 people, including a dozen Dalit people, after consuming spurious liqour last week.

The police had obtained an arrest warrant from a court and applied for attachment of Yadav's property to pressurize him to surrender, Hussain said.

At least 20 persons, including two women, had died after consuming spurious liqour in various localities under Rampur and Chekri police station areas in Gaya district over three days since December 10 last.

The police had later raided a godown in Bindi Yadav market and seized a large quantity of packets of hooch allegedly belonging to Yadav, who was said to be the supplier of the spurious liqour, Hussain said.