Mumbai hooch tragedy: Supplier held in Delhi, government orders probe

MUMBAI: In a breakthrough into the worst-ever hooch tragedy in Mumbai that has so far claimed 102 lives and rendered over 40 people ill, police have tracked down and arrested one of the main suppliers of the killer brew in Delhi today while the Maharashtra government has ordered a Chief Secretary-headed probe into the case.

Atiq, whom police had narrowed down as a main supplier of the spurious liquor, was arrested in Delhi with the help of the local police there, Mumbai Joint Commissioner of police (Crime) Atulchandra Kulkarni, said.

"We have got him (Atiq) after a joint operation with the Delhi police," Kulkarni told PTI.

Nearly a week after the tragedy struck a working class area in Malwani, Excise Minister Eknath Khadse after a cabinet meeting today told reporters that the probe would be conducted by Chief Secretary Swadheen Kshatriya.

"The government has ordered a probe under the Chief Secretary to enquire into the deaths caused in the unfortunate Malwani hooch tragedy and submit the report within three months," Khadse said.

Rattled by the tragedy, which hit the Laxmi Nagar slum in suburban Malwani on Wednesday night, the government was also mulling to bring in a harsher law to deal with bootlegging to ensure that those arrested for distilling and selling illicit liquor do not get bail for at least one year after their arrest.

Blaming the BJP-led state government's lapses for the tragedy, opposition Congress has already demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the Home portfolio.

Meanwhile, Police and Excise personnel carried out extensive raids in suburban areas of Mumbai from where the illicit liquor is mostly sourced by bootleggers to be supplied to slums in the city.