Aligarh hooch tragedy: UP police raids illicit liquor factory in Gurugram

After recent reports of several deaths due to consumption of illicit liquor, Uttar Pradesh Police has raided a spurious liquor factory in neighbouring Haryana which was in league with a liquor mafia in Aligarh district.

Nearly 50 people died due to spurious liquor consumption in Aligarh recently on two different occasions, while officials estimate that the death toll could go up to 100 as autopsy reports of another 50 suspected hooch consumer victims are awaited.

After a fortnight-long crackdown on the spurious liquor syndicate, Aligarh police on Wednesday raided a premises in Gurugram where a full-fledged illicit liquor factory was operating in alliance with the Aligarh-based liquor mafia.

Senior Superintendent of Police Kalanidhi Naithani told mediapersons that questioning of one of the arrested liquor mafia members, Madangopal alias Kalia who hails from Faridabad, led the police to the Gurugram factory.

At the factory, liquor was being manufactured and packed in plastic containers to be supplied to Aligarh and neighbouring districts, he said.

The police are now trying to trace the network through which these factories were procuring the alcohol-based chemicals.

The SSP said that ever since the liquor tragedy broke out, more than 70 people involved in liquor trade have been arrested in connection with 22 different cases.

In a major shake-up in the district police following the two recent hooch tragedies, more than 540 policemen posted for over two years at the same police station were transferred for having suspected links with the liquor mafia.

According to a police officer who did not wish to be named, it may not be "easy to trace the supply trail of raw industrial alcohol because of entrenched vested interests".

The Aligarh police has so far acted with remarkable "alacrity" in smashing the liquor mafia "despite odds", he added.