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Malvani hooch tragedy: Mumbai crime branch arrest two more as death toll touches 97

150 litres of spurious liquor seized in raids at 300 places

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The city crime branch, probing Malwani hooch tragedy case, arrested two more persons – both women – on Sunday, even as toll in the disaster rose to 97. Fourty six persons are still in the hospitals.

Mumbai police, meanwhile, continued with the crackdown on country-made liquor dens. Since Friday, it has raided more than 300 places in northern suburbs.

While the crime branch seized around 1,200 litres of spurious liquor based on the information from the arrested accused, 150 litres of liquor were seized by the police in raids in northern suburbs. 

Those arrested have been identified as Mamta Laxman Rathod, 30, and Agnes Gracy alias Aunty, 50. On June 19, the police had arrested Raju Hanmanta Pascar alias Langda, 50, Donald Robert Patel, 47, Gautam Harte, 30, Salimuddin Shaikh and Francis D'mello for their alleged involvement in the crime.

Eight policemen from Malwani station and four excise officials have been suspended in the case so far. 

“From the information gathered from D'mello, we raided a place in Malwani on Sunday and seized eight drums, few cans and other materials having about 1200 litres of spurious liquor. The group used to sell each pouch of 200 ml for Rs 10,” said a crime branch officer.

Additional commissioner of police (north), Fatehsingh Patil, said a massive crackdown has been launched to flush out those behind the tragedy and those who were in the business. “We went through the criminal records to identify all those involved in the production, distribution and sale of spurious liquor and sought information from the public about their whereabouts. Accordingly, raids were conducted in Malwani, Charkop and Kurar areas,” Patil told dna.

The police have registered 35 cases against 35 people, including women, for possession of spurious liquor. “In a rare move, we have booked them under article 328 of the IPC for causing hurt by means of poison. Sixteen people have been detained under preventive custody,” said Patil.

Police said samples of seized liquor would be send to the forensic laboratory. “There are many involved in sale of such liquor in various pockets of the suburbs. In some cases, sellers claim that they were unaware that the liquor supplied to them was spurious. On Saturday, we busted two liquor dens in the tribal areas of Kurar jungles in Malad (E),” said Patil.

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