Chandigarh, May 13
At least 15 men have died after allegedly consuming spurious liquor in four villages of the Majitha area in Amritsar district, officials said on Tuesday.
The deceased, mostly labourers working in brick kilns, include residents of Bhangali, Marari Kalan Therwal and Patalpuri villages.
Superintendent of Police (Amritsar Rural), Maninder Singh said the main accused Prabhjit Singh has been arrested and he turned out to be the mastermind behind supplying the spurious liquor.
A First Information Report (FIR) was on Tuesday registered under Section 105 of the BNS and 61-A of the Excise Act.
The others arrested were Kulbir Singh, alias Jaggu, a brother of the main accused Prabhjit Singh, Sahib Singh, alias Sarai, Gurjant Singh and Ninder Kaur, wife of Jeeta.
The Investigation Police Officer told the media that preliminary investigation indicated that “all took liquor from a single source on Sunday evening. Some of them died on Monday and locals cremated them without informing the police. We received information about the deaths due to liquor late in the evening (Monday) and initiated an investigation.”
A spokesperson for the government said an investigation of the entire spurious liquor network is on.
In March 2024, as many as 24 people had died in Sangrur due to spurious liquor. Earlier in 2020, more than 100 people died across Punjab in one of the deadliest illicit liquor tragedies.