Aligarh, May 29(UNI) With more people succumbing at various hospitals here, the death toll in the hooch tragedy mounted to 28 till late last night, police said on Saturday.
Post-mortem of most of the dead bodies were done, while some were in the queue till early this morning.
Meanwhile, several among a dozen of people undergoing treatment in the District Hospital and JN Medical College, are stated to be critical.
The UP government has suspended five excise officials, including District Excise Officer Dheeraj Sharma, Excise Inspector Rajesh Yadav, Head Constable Ashok Kumar, Inspector Chandraprakash Yadav and Constable Ramraj Rana on charges of negligence.
Police have registered three cases and arrested five people, including Anil Chaudhary, an accused in the liquor smuggling racket. The two main accused are absconding, on whom a reward of Rs 50,000 each has been declared, disclosed SSP Kalanidhi Naithani here on Saturday.
The first casualty was reported in Karsua village of Lodha police station area and Andala village of Khair police station area at 0800 hrs on Friday.
Excise team, along with police, DIG Deepak Kumar, DM Chandrabhushan Singh, SSP Kalanidhi Naithani reached the spot and rushed the sick to the hospital.
Meanwhile, two drivers of the containers were found missing at the IOC bottling plant outside the village. Later they were found in an unconscious state inside their containers.
People who were sick after consuming the illicit alcohol were sent to the hospital from village Nandpur Pala, Wright, Havatpur, Sangaur, Pala Sallu. Of these, 15 people sent from Karsua, Andala, Nandpur Pala, Sangaur died.
A few hours later, three people were also reported dead in village Chherat in Jawan.
At 1230 hrs, four more bodies from Sangaur and Karsua villages were brought to the post-mortem center.
Apart from this, efforts were made to bring two bodies of Nandpur Pala and one of Chharat for post-mortem till midnight.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has directed strict action under the National Security Act (NSA) in the case. The property of the convicts will be confiscated and auctioned and the kin of the deceased compensated.
On the orders of District Magistrate Chandrabhushan Singh, the ADM administration has started a magisterial investigation and will submit his report in 15 days.
Five people, including liquor baron and RLD leader Anil Chaudhary, have been arrested. Rishi Sharma and Vipin Yadav associated with BJP are absconding. The reward of Rs 50,000 were declared on them.
In the case, five outlets of country made liquor of Karsua, Kakola, Arrana, Pachpeda and Chharat have been sealed and samples of the liquor were sent for investigation, said DM Chandrabhushan Singh.
The deceased were identified as Neeraj Kumar (28), Dharampal (45), Rakesh (50), Manoj Chauhan (50), Mavir Singh (40), Jitendra Singh (55), Hariom alias Kinnu (40), Sunil (28), Mahesh (40), Rajesh (35),
Santosh (45), Jaipal (65), Satish Sharma (42),Rakesh Kumar(45), Ashok (35) , Sohanpal (55),Surjeet (40), Khushiram(30) Islammuddin (65),Dharampal Singh (62), Rajkumar (45), Anandpal (55), Gulveer Singh (38), Maheshchandra (38), Avneesh (34), Lallan Prasad (50), Harun (40), Tahir (50).
UNI MB SB 1044