Bihar CM dares NHRC to probe in other state's hooch tragedy
Dec 21, 2022
Patna (Bihar) [India], December 21 : Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday questioned the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) probe into the Saran hooch tragedy.
"NHRC should understand that prohibition is enforced in Bihar with the sale, consumption and manufacturing of liquor totally banned. No one has the right to violate prohibition and drink spurious liquor. The Constitution is clear about it," said Bihar CM during a media interaction in the state capital.
Daring the NHRC to probe into reported hooch tragedies in other states, Nitish added, "I want to ask in which part of the country people are not dying due to drinking alcohol? Hadn't this happened before, didn't people die due to poisonous liquor? Why an NHRC team is probing only in Bihar? If the NHRC has sent a team to Saran to inquire into the incident, it should send teams to other states also."
Taking a jab at Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), Kumar said, "BJP people never said anything about the other state's reported hooch tragedy. Earlier they were not having any problem and now suddenly they want a probe into the incident. I have said this earlier also and now again saying this, please don't do all this business. We have always made people aware through social reform campaigns."
With the death toll rising to 72, a team of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday arrived at Chhapra Sadar Hospital in Bihar to probe the hooch tragedy where they obtained the necessary information from Sadar Hospital's CS Dr Sagar Dulal Sinha, DS Dr SD Singh and Bhasa's Secretary Dr KM Dubey.
When the members of the commission came out of the office after the inquiry, they did not give any answer to the questions of the journalists and hurriedly left in their car.
CS of Sadar Hospital said, "The team of the commission obtained complete information about the number of death and post-mortem."
He further said that the postmortem of 34 dead bodies was done in Chhapra Sadar Hospital while the postmortem of 8 bodies was done in PMCH, Patna.
Since the bodies have been preserved in all the postmortems, it is not appropriate to say anything until the detailed report comes, he added.
The NHRC team is comprised of nine members who will investigate the tragic incident reported last week from Bihar's Saran district in which over 60 people were killed due to consuming spurious liquor at a local joint. After the deaths, angry villagers blocked the Masrakh Hanuman Chowk on Bihar State Highway 90 and raised slogans against the district administration.
The incident also triggered a political slugfest in the Bihar assembly, with opposition leaders mounting a strong attack on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the spate of spurious liquor deaths.
