Two fresh deaths had been reported in Pandori Gola Tuesday. Soon after, police had booked Joga Singh and Karanbir Singh for selling spurious liquor.(Representational)Two days after two people died and two others were taken ill in a Tarn Taran village, Pandori Gola, police on Thursday gave a clean chit to one among the two men arrested in the case. About the second, police said that he was not a smuggler, and had found liquor in the bushes.
Two fresh deaths, Dilbagh Singh and Heera Singh, had been reported in Pandori Gola on Tuesday. Soon after, police had booked Joga Singh and Karanbir Singh of the same village for selling spurious liquor.
On Wednesday, while police said that Joga Singh had no role in the deaths, it added that Karanbir was not a professional peddler, but had accidentally discovered the liquor he sold.
“We are discharging Joga Singh. He has no role in the fresh deaths. Family of Dilbagh Singh had named him and we registered case on the statement of family against Joga Singh. We have found nothing against Joga Singh in investigation,” said SSP Tarn Taran Dhruman H Nimbale.
He added: “Karanbir Singh had found liquor in a cold drink bottle in the bushes where he went to collect fodder for his mule as he plies a cart for living. He thought of making some money by selling this liquor. So he sold it to Hira, Dhira, Rampal and Dilbagh. He has no history of selling liquor. It was first time that he sold illegal liquor.”
Police is also questioning is liquor was spurious.
According to the SSP, “Five people have drunk this liquor and only two have died. In hooch tragedy, 123 people died and only 12 recovered. But in this case, Karanbir drank most of the liquor and he is still fit and fine. We are awaiting postmortem report of both deceased to find out if there was any medical condition behind their deaths. We have also recovered some remaining liquor and have sent it for testing to find if it was really spurious.”
District administration has so far not announced any compensation for victims’ families. “State government has not announced any compensation to these families. If state government makes any announcement then we will process the file accordingly,” said DC Tarn Taran Kulwant Singh.