Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 3
Calling for an iron-hand approach to deal with illicit and spurious liquor trade, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that releasing the accused on bail in hooch tragedy cases would leave society with little reason to cheer.
Turning down the bail plea of an accused in a case registered in Tarn Taran, Justice Harnaresh Singh Gill ruled: “If such persons are released on bail, they would further decay the very system of society and their such acts would render society full with widowed women, orphaned children, and old and infirm parents with full of woes and sorrow tales.”
The matter was placed before Justice Gill after an accused sought regular bail in an FIR registered for causing hurt by means of poison, criminal conspiracy and other offences on August 2, 2020, at the City police station in Tarn Taran under Sections 328, 272 and 120-B of the IPC, and the provisions of the Punjab Excise Act.
The state counsel submitted the accused was also involved in another case registered at Tarn Taran after a number of persons either died or lost their eyesight due illicit, spurious and poisonous liquor supplied by the accused, such as the petitioner. The hooch tragedy had led to a massive outcry.
Justice Gill asserted the greed of the accused was to earn money at the cost of lives of innocent and poor people. If anyone played havoc and committed brutality of killing people through passive modes for mere monetary benefits, the person did not deserve any leniency for snatching from others the right to live with dignity. The person was required to be dealt with an iron hand.
Justice Gill added the petitioner was accused of a gruesome crime against society at large. The modus operandi and the mens rea behind preparation of spurious country made liquor with the objective of selling it to people from the underprivileged sections of society was a well-thought-out design. It had eaten into the very roots of society. One could not lose sight of such hooch tragedies reported in the recent past from different parts of the country, all leading to deaths of several persons from the marginalised sections of society.
“As the people used to substance go berserk under the allurement of the liquor being cheap, none can speak of their prudence, at the dangling moment of addiction. It is this state of these hapless people, which is taken benefit of by the people like the petitioner,” Justice Gill asserted.
Bail plea turned down