Gopalganj court rejects bail petitions of five liquor tragedy accused

Alok Mishra

Gopalganj: The court of ADJ-VI, Gopalganj, on December 15 rejected the bail petitions of five accused of Khajurbanni liquor tragedy that had rocked the state in August this year. The court after hearing the arguments of the lawyers of both the sides in connection with  culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the case rejected the bail petitions of the accused.

During the hearing, defence lawyer Ved Prakash Tiwary informed the court that in the FIR lodged, one Bandhu Ram had mentioned that he had consumed liquor at the house of Nagina Choudhary. He said that even police could not recover anything objectionable from the houses of the accused. Local police put their names in the FIRs as they are residents of Khajurbanni but had nothing to do with this illegal trade, Tiwary argued.

Vinat Kumar Mishra, defence lawyer of Kailasho Devi, said that his client is innocent and the police implicated her as she proved to be weak. However, Special Public Prosecutor Ravi Bhushan Srivastava said that Khajurbanni incident is a black chapter and several persons had died after consuming liquor there.

It may be mentioned here that 21 persons had died while five others fell ill after they consumed liquor at village Khajurbanni on August 15 and 16. Separate cases of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and trade of illicit liquor were lodged with Town police station. Later, the accused Rita Devi, Chathu Choudhary, Sanoj Pasi, Rajesh Pasi and Kailasho Devi filed bail petitions in the court of District and Sessions Judge, which transferred the petitions to the court of ADJ-VI.