Gujarat hooch tragedy: Congress demands probe by HC judgeNew De'

The Congress alleged on Friday that the illicit liquor trade is ''flourishing'' in Gujarat under the protection of the ''ruling forces'' and demanded a probe by a high court judge into the death of over 40 people in the state due to consumption of spurious liquor.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi expressed concern over the business of spurious liquor and drugs in the BJP-ruled state and asked which ruling forces are giving protection to the ''mafia'' involved in it.

Forty-two people from Botad and neighbouring Ahmedabad district have died so far after consuming spurious liquor on July 25, while 97 people are admitted to hospitals in Bhavnagar, Botad and Ahmedabad, according to Gujarat Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the deaths and asked who is responsible for this tragedy.

''By putting the label of prohibition on the top, who are the people of the government giving protection to the illicit liquor business?'' she asked.

''Bapu's land wants answers to these questions. The BJP government is running away from the questions of providing protection to the illicit liquor business,'' she said in a tweet in Hindi.

Slamming the saffron party over the development, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Gujarat on Thursday as well as on Friday and he neither met the victims's families nor conveyed his condolences to them.

''Why so much insensitivity?'' Ramesh asked in a tweet, tagging Modi.

Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, Congress's media department head Pawan Khera and Rajya Sabha member Amee Yajnik urged the prime minister to speak up on the deaths due to consumption of spurious liquor and meet the victims' families during his Gujarat visit.

Khera said it has come to light that 600 litres of ''methyl alcohol'' (methanol) were brought from Ahmedabad to Botad district, water was mixed in it and it was sold in different areas due to which people either lost their lives or suffered kidney damage.

The production and sale of such a dangerous chemical substance should be closely monitored by the government but what happened in this case raises many serious questions, he added.

All this is not possible in a ''dry state'' without the knowledge of the local police and administration, Khera said, alleging that the leaders of the ruling party, police, administration and the liquor mafia must have been complicit.

The Congress leader said statements have been made to the media by the victims' families that there is no prohibition in Gujarat and that liquor is being sold openly in the state.

''If we talk about the whole of Gujarat, then an annual illegal liquor business of about Rs 15,000 crore is being done. The illegal liquor business is flourishing, from Modiji's village of Vadnagar to every district in the state,'' he alleged.

Khera said seizure of drugs worth crores of rupees and the ''flourishing'' illegal liquor business in Gujarat, the home state of Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, cannot be a mere coincidence.

This is clearly an experiment being carried out under the protection of the ruling forces, he alleged.

Khera said the Congress demands that the spurious liquor scandal be investigated by a high court judge because if police, who are being accused, carry out the probe, then there will be no point in it.

''Most of the people who died due to drinking spurious liquor were poor and bread earners of their respective households. Appropriate compensation should be given to such families,'' he said.

The Congress leader also demanded that there should be free and better treatment made available to those who have lost their eyes or suffered kidney damage due to consumption of spurious liquor.

Yajnik alleged that illegal liquor joints are operating throughout Gujarat with no action being taken.

Police investigation has revealed that a man named Jayesh aka Raju, who has been arrested, had stolen 600 litres of methyl alcohol from a godown in Ahmedabad, where he worked as a manager, and sold it to his Botad-based cousin Sanjay for Rs 40,000 on July 25.

Despite knowing that it was an industrial solvent, Sanjay sold the chemical to the bootleggers of different villages in Botad.

These bootleggers mixed water in the chemical and sold it to people as country-made liquor, police said.