Bihar’s hooch tragedy: Mastermind held in Delhi

In a significant catch, the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch on Saturday arrested the alleged mastermind in the national capital in connection with the hooch tragedy which led to the death of at least 80 people in Bihar. The accused has been identified as Ram Babu Mahto, a resident of Saran district.

Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Singh Yadav said that police had received a tip-off which said Mahto was hiding somewhere in Delhi, according to PTI. The crime branch’s inter-state cell worked on the tip-off and coordinated with Bihar Police while searching for Mahto.

Ram Babu Mahto, who has been arrested from Dwarka, was one of the key players in the entire episode where several people lost their lives,” Yadav said. The police are investigating seven cases related to the supply of illicit liquor. He said that Mahto had decamped to Delhi when he felt the heat from Bihar Police after the tragedy.  The senior officer said that appropriate legal action is being taken and information about his arrest has been shared with Bihar police.

The issue has triggered a political slugfest between the BJP and the state’s ruling alliance, RJD and JD-U.  It also led to disruption in Parliament following the National Human Rights Commission’s intervention. On December 20, the opposition parties walked out of the Rajya Sabha, accusing the Union government of misusing the NHRC.

RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha said: “NHRC is being used as a political tool in the Bihar hooch tragedy issue.” He added that “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s own state Gujarat faces a hooch tragedy every third month but the NHRC never visited there”. “NHRC neither visited to probe Morbi nor the killing of hundreds of people in Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh), Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. The entire opposition walked out of the house in protest of the partisan role of the NHRC,” Jha said

Mahto found the opportunity to make a quick buck in the prohibition laws of the state and got involved in the manufacture and sale of spurious liquor, police said.

The incident ignited a political storm over the Bihar government’s liquor ban policy with opposition BJP demanding CM Nitish Kumar’s resignation.

-INDIA NEWS STREAM