Court refuses bail to two Gopalganj liquor tragedy accused

Alok Mishra

Gopalganj: The court of ADJ-II, Gopalganj, on Wednesday rejected the bail petitions of Grahan Pasi and Rita Devi, two accused of Khajurbanni liquor tragedy.

Defence lawyer Ved Prakash Tiwary pleaded before the court that Grahan was admitted to Greater Noida hospital at the time of the incident. He argued that police implicated them in the case as they have a house at Khajurbanni. Even the seizure list did not mention that anything objectionable was recovered from the houses of Grahan and Rita, he told the court adding that local police did not make anyone from the village witness in the case. Under the circumsancesis, both the accused should be granted bail, he argued in the the court.

Special Public Prosecutor Ravi Bhushan Srivastava said that several persons had died after consuming liquor while others were taken ill. Despite blanket ban by the state government over sale and manufacture of liquor, the accused were involved in this clandestine trade, he argued. The court after hearing the argument of both the lawyers rejected the bail petitions of Grahan and Rita.

It may be mentioned here that Rita had surrendered before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) on September 19 while Grahan had surrendered in CJM court on October 21. The bail petition of Rita was rejected by the CJM court on October 30 while the bail petition of Grahan was rejected by the same court on November 5.