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The number of fatalities could go up as about 190 people are still undergoing treatment. The new cases were reported from Odhav, Amaraiwadi, Rakhial and Raipur.
On Thursday night, Gujarat Police rounded up over 800 bootleggers and sealed scores of illicit liquor dens across the state.
Earlier, the police had detained one suspected bootlegger Harishankar Kahar alias Hariom, who allegedly supplied spurious liquor in the Majoor Gam and Odhav areas where most of the deaths have occurred.
Anger spilled out on the streets with people protesting against the police and government’s inability to curb bootlegging in a state where sale and consumption of liquor is banned. Irate residents vandalised a total of seven buses on Thursday in Odhav, Viratnagar and Amraiwadi areas and pelted police vans with stones. Demonstrations were staged and effigies of state Home Minister Amit Shah burnt across the city.
A tight police bandobast was in place in Odhav where residents had called a bandh. Similar protests were staged in Naroda, Amraiwadi and Ramol areas in the city. Police resorted to mild lathicharge to bring the situation under control and detained 78 people as a preventive measure.
The Opposition Congress members, meanwhile, created uproarious scenes in the Assembly for the second day on Thursday after being denied permission by Speaker Ashok Bhatt to debate the hooch tragedy.
Seven Congress MLAs, who created a ruckus and even broke the microphone system, were placed under suspension for the rest of the Budget session by the Speaker. Two ACP's and four police inspectors have so far been suspended and transferred for dereliction of duty.
The Gujarat Government has announced that a commission headed by a retired High Court judge will probe the incident. Investigations have been handed over to the crime branch.
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Sir, why people are protesting for Hooch deaths? Who told them consume alchahol in the land of Gandhiji, wherein prohibition imposed (the only state in India). Instead of say sorry to the nation for their weakness for liquor addiction, why people are going berserk and damage public property. This happend becuase of morally corrupted contractors and consumers. As usal, congress MLAs making hue and cry as Modi himself served the liquor to those people. In Bihar, Delhi, North eastern States, Southern States, this type of tragedies are very common. Is there any political ploy playing by Congees to destablize BJP Govt.? May be....
The bubble of Gujarat 'gaurav'and 'asmita' has suddenly burst. The real culprits are not the poisonous booze-makers but forces who kept on patronizing these criminals. This is high time that we investigate the role of VHP and Bajrang Dal in patronizing these nefarious liquor dens and minting enormous money. The above two organizations claimed to have committees through out Gujarat at city/locality/street to keep eye on anti-Hindu forces. If despite this kind of vigilance illegal liquor dens were flourishing this must have been with the connivance of the above organizations. There is immediate need to bring to justice the real culprits.
Home Minister Amit Shah got to accept his responsibility and RESIGN. There is no prohibition on liquor, there is no law and order, crime rate is raising continuously, suicidal cases due to pressure fom money lenders' pressure has become everyday affair, there is no safety of women in the state, education is very poor and comparable to lowest five states in the country.
Since years similar tragic incidents have been reported in Gujarat proving that the so called liquor ban is on paper only.Also many incidents in several cities/villages of people getting caught drunk confirm this.Therefore the Government should now consider to review lifting liquor ban so that the State Government may get benefitted by earning annual tax revenue of about Rs.4000 crores which now is flowing away in in appropriate hands.Besides people are mislead into buying cheap spurious liquor which lead to such hooch tragedy.Liquor ban has also made the police more corrupt and inefficient.Gandhiji was called Nations Father -and the states apart from Gujarat have chosen not to be hypocrite and corrupt and thus have permitted sale of liquor in their states.People of Gujarat thus expects from popular state government bold initiative to break away from old liquor ban practice giving rise to corruption and hooch tragedies and start sale of liquor.
No one has ever died just because he or she drank alcohol, legal or not. Talking in the short term. The belief that bootleggers use all sorts of substances in the manufacture of alcohol and THAT proves lethal is incorrect. What happens is that methylated spirit (ethyl alcohol in which methyl alcohol has been mixed to render it poisonous (revenue reasons, no morality involved)) is mixed with the hooch because it is cheap and available in large quantities. This proves immediately lethal when the proportion of methylated spirit to hooch increases beyond a very low level - proportions being decided by the greed in the mind of the mixer, who knows perfectly well that he is poisoning his consumer. This is murder. And has to be treated as murder. Prohibition or not, this is bound to happen, when the pursuit of profit to any extent is deemed legitimate. Ahmedabadi builders who caused hundreds of deaths in 2001 got away. So why such an uproar now? Hafta not paid on time?