BHOPAL: Eight days after a spurious liquor tragedy claimed lives in several villages in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district, a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) team met the families of at least eight victims in Banda block on Tuesday.
NHRC member Priyank Kanoongo, who led the team, met the families in Jagthar and Gugra Khurd villages. He had earlier met six patients undergoing treatment at Bundelkhand Medical College in Sagar city.
After meeting the victims’ families, Kanoongo said the police investigation needed to be more professional to build a strong case against the accused.
“Many victim families have told us that the local police are yet to record their statements. Some families have alleged that many of those involved in the supply of spurious liquor are not just at large, but have not even been named in the two FIRs registered by the police so far. The families have told us that one of those suspects was initially detained by police, but then allowed to go and that particular persons isn’t named in the FIRs as yet,” Kanoongo told TNIE on Tuesday.
“From what I’ve observed, particularly after meeting the victim families, the quality of investigations needed to be more professionalized and the statements of all families needed to be recorded at the earliest by the police. If the local police fails to improve it’s professional competence, then the FIRs need to be transferred for better investigation to specialized wing of the state police, including the special task force (MPSTF) or the Crime Investigation Department (CID),” Kanoongo said.
The NHRC member said, “We’ve asked the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to promptly identify those children who have been orphaned due to the hooch tragedy, so that the process of rendering benefits under the government schemes meant for such children could be accelerated.”
“Some families told me that their family members who had died, actually consumed liquor purchased from the licensed liquor vend. In such cases, the administrative process needed to be accelerated for enabling those families to claim compensation from those running the licensed liquor vend,” Kanoongo added.
The administration has so far confirmed 20 deaths in the hooch tragedy and classified seven more deaths as suspected to have been caused by spurious liquor. Local reports, however, put the death toll at 35-40.
Police have arrested 19 of the 33 named accused so far.
Digvijaya Singh adopts four bereaved families
Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh has announced that he will adopt four families who lost members in the tragedy. Two of the families belong to the Ahirwar Scheduled Caste and two are tribal families.
“Every month, I’ll deposit a sum of Rs 10,000 into the bank accounts of each of the four families. I’ll also fund the entire education of children of the four families,” Singh said.