Bhopal: Fourteen people died in two villages of Morena district on Tuesday after consuming poisonous liquor and 18 are in hospital, including two in critical condition. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has suspended the excise officer of Morena for failing to conduct timely inspections and for carelessness in carrying out his duties. On the instructions of the chief minister, too, the SP, Morena, has suspended the station-in-charge of Bagchini police station.
The CM said that the commissioner Gwalior-Chambal had established a team to investigate the issue.
Besides police station-in-charge of Bagchini Avinash Singh Rathore, the SP, Morena, Anurag Sujania has suspended the beat-in-charge, Rajesh Kumar Garg, and head constable, Ramvaran Singh, has been suspended and attached to the Police Lines at Morena.
The Bagchini police have registered a case against accused Girraj Kirar, Raju Kirar, Pappu Pandit, Kalla Pandit, Ramveer Teli, Pradeep Teli, residents of Manpur, and Mukesh Kirar of village Chera, under sections 304, 34 of the IPC and sections 34 and 49-A of the Excise Act.
The I-G of Chambal range, Manoj Sharma, said that 12 people from two different villages — Manpur and Chera — had died after consuming the poisonous liquor. He added that the first case was reported on Monday and the victim was shifted to Morena district hospital. He was referred to Gwalior Medical College, but died midway. On Monday, four people had died. Between Monday night and Tuesday morning, eight others had lost their lives. Till Tuesday morning, seven people had died at Manpur village and five at Chera village.
‘Compensation for victims’
Former chief minister Kamal Nath has criticised the carelessness of the administration and has formed a six-member committee to investigate the deaths. The committee comprises four MLAs, Baijnath Kushwaha, Ajab Singh Kushwaha, Rakesh Mavai and Ravindra Singh Tomar, besides the president of the Kisan Congress, Dinesh Gurjer, and DCC president, Morena, Deepak Sharma. In his tweet, the former CM stated that ‘the mafia who were suppressed during Congress rule had now started resurfacing. After taking 16 lives in Ujjain, they had now taken the lives of 14 people in Morena, he said. He asked the CM to help the victims who had fallen ill and also to provide help to the families of victims who were dead.
