Bhavnagar, A police constable has been arrested in connection with the hooch tragedy, which claimed the lives of 13 people in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar, bringing the total number of arrests in the case to 39, an official said on Tuesday.
Police constable Rajdeepsinh Gohil, attached to the Velavadar Bhal police station, was taken into custody after investigations found that he was in constant contact with the prime accused, Gautam Solanki, and had assisted in the commission of the offence, the state monitoring cell stated in a release. They involved Narendra Yadav, also from Madhya Pradesh, in the illegal business. Of the 38 accused arrested earlier, 14 are currently in judicial custody, while 24 are on police remand, said the SMC, a special Gujarat police unit that tracks state-wide illicit liquor and gambling operations. Raees and Zuber, his assistant from Ujjain, procured raw materials from Ahmedabad and prepared the toxic liquor at Solanki’s residence, according to the FIR registered at Vartej police station on August 19.
Solanki told the police that he came in contact with Raees through a common friend. Yadav, police later said, died after consuming the liquor that he himself prepared.
The examination of the blood sample of the first victim, Upendrasinh Gohil, showed the presence of methanol. More deaths followed, and many more were hospitalised with severe complications.
