First instance of hooch tragedy after Bihar government imposed total ban on liquor this April, has claimed 12 lives. At least 12 persons have died in last 12 hours in Gopalganj after allegedly drinking spurious country made liquor. Gopalganj District Magistrate Rahul Kumar, has confirmed 10 deaths so far and said that they would wait for the postmortem report to conclusively tell the reasons of death. The district administration has formed three teams to probe in to the reasons of the deaths.

The government is in denial mode, as the Gopalganj incident will bring huge embarrassment to Nitish Kumar goverment that claims to have cracked down on the manufacture and sale of liquor. Gopalganj is home district of RJD chief Lalu Prasad.

Several relatives said that over one and a half dozen people - mostly habitual drinkers - had drank liquor at Khajurbani, near railway crossing on Harkhua Road under the Town police station. The area has been infamous for selling the liquor clandestinely for an amount of Rs 80-100 per pouch, despite prohibition.

The identified persons who have died in the hooch tragedy are Parmanand Mahto (54), Mantu Giri (34), Shashi Kant Mahto (24), Dinesh Mahto (40), Umesh Chauhan (34), Ramji Sharma (46), Manoj Sah (23).

This is the first big incident of hooch tragedy deaths that have taken place in Bihar after prohibition was imposed in the state in April this year.

By Premji