The death toll due to spurious liquor consumption in Saran district of Bihar this week has reached at least 44 and patients are still getting admitted to hospital, sources told News18. While people in the villages said that due to fear of the administration, many were cremated without a post-mortem, the superintendent of police and district magistrate of Saran have given the official figure of only 26 deaths.
A BJP delegation headed by the leader of the opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha and other MLAs had visited the grieving families and demanded compensation for the kin of the deceased as well as a CBI inquiry into the deaths that took place in Chhapra. They also asked for the resignation of chief minister Nitish Kumar for failing to implement his liquor policy in the state.
Prohibition was imposed by the Nitish Kumar-led government in 2016 after a woman in a public programme asked the CM to ban liquor, saying that poor families were suffering from domestic violence and other problems because of their alcoholic husbands.
The same policy is now proving to be a nightmare not only for the CM but also for the women of Bihar, say critics.
The women of Chhapra who lost their loved ones now have a different view of Nitish. They blame the CM and his administration for the demise of their husbands, their brothers, and sons in the hooch tragedy. The women accused the chief minister of letting smugglers do their business, police officers of being in cahoots, and bureaucrats of corruption in failing to implement the law.
Families of victims furious
“My father had consumed liquor on Tuesday night and he died in the morning. The police are involved in the selling of liquor but who will complain against them?" local resident Sarla Devi said to CNN-News18.
Munni, the kin of another deceased, said her brother died after consuming the spurious liquor. He lost his vision and developed chest pain, then passed away around 3 in the morning, she revealed.
“My uncle died not because of the liquor but because of the administration’s negligence," said Rahul, another local resident. “He didn’t get proper treatment in the hospital and even the ambulance was not available. We took him in a private vehicle but it was too late. The liquor is very easily available here and the sellers openly sell local as well as homemade alcohol."
Another angry local, Durga Devi, blamed Nitish Kumar for the deaths. “He failed to control the sale of illicit liquor. It is he who is allowing the sale. He has destroyed so many families. We are never going to vote for him," she said.
The liquor ban has proved to be a failure, said local resident Sarita Devi. “Instead of doing good for us, it has become a nightmare for us. The police and administration under the CM are corrupt and are involved in a nexus with the liquor mafia," she added.
A News 18 investigation found that a stock of spirit that was confiscated by Mashrakh police in Chhapra had gone missing in large quantity from inside the police station, raising questions of the possible collusion of the local police and mafia who sold the hooch in pouches at the local Mashrakh market, the same area from where it was allegedly distributed to the villages leading to the deaths of dozens. Officers of the excise department have sent samples of the spirit that was stockpiled at Mashrakh police station after past confiscations to see whether it had life-threatening elements in it.
The Saran incident adds to a litany of such cases in the state in recent months. In July 2021, 16 people died after consuming spurious liquor in Champaran. A few months later, in November, 25 people died after drinking illicit liquor in Gopalganj. March 2022 saw the deaths of 18 people in Banka, Bhagalpur, after they had consumed hooch. In August, 12 people died in a suspected hooch tragedy in Saran district. Two months later, illicit liquor claimed 5 lives in Rohtas district.
Political heat
After chief minister Nitish Kumar’s “drunkard" jibe at BJP MLAs in the state assembly on Wednesday (“Kya ho gaya, kya ho gaya, tum log sharab pite ho"), Bihar’s excise minister Sunil Kumar gave a bizarre statement and said, “There are laws in the country but still murders and thefts are happening. There are deaths in other states as well due to spurious liquor."
On Thursday, Nitish gave a statement that sparked a controversy: “Sharab band hai to gadbad cheez bechega hi, sharab piyega to marega hi (If liquor is banned, they will sell spurious stuff, if they drink liquor, of course they will die)."
The opposition was quick to react, with BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad terming it the height of insensitivity by the CM of Bihar. Party MLA Neeraj Singh Bablu called for a CBI probe, and proper compensation to be given to the families of the deceased. Union minister Pashupati Paras said the liquor prohibition law should be scrapped.
“Liquor in Bihar is like a god. It can’t be seen but is present everywhere," said union minister Giriraj Singh.
Leader of opposition in the assembly Vijay Sinha asked the chief minister to either resign or tender an apology to the people of Bihar.
What top court had said
The Bihar prohibition issue had come up in the Supreme Court earlier this year.
“What is of utmost concern to us is the legislative impact study which ought to have been undertaken before implementing the law as every law has an impact in terms of the litigation it generates and there has to be an analysis and arrangements made to tackle those consequences before a law is brought into force," said the SC.
The Bihar state counsel apprised the court that in the last six years, since the Excise Act came into force, a total of 3,78,186 cases had been registered (as of 11.05.2022) and trial had commenced in 1,16,103 cases.
The Bihar government submitted before the court that it was proposing to make certain amendments to the Act to make it more efficacious. Thereafter, the state amended section 37 of the Act, which provides for a penalty for the consumption of liquor. Section 37 deals with such accused who are caught drinking but are not involved in liquor trading/smuggling.
Facing criticism from the SC over its clogged courts, dry state Bihar had taken steps to give some relief to consumers of illegal liquor. Passed by the state assembly in March this year, the Bihar Prohibition and Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2022, states that people caught consuming liquor will now have to pay a fine before a magistrate and won’t be sent to jail. In fact, a recent circular said that the focus will be on nabbing the mafias and bootleggers rather than those who consume liquor.
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