Law Kumar Mishra
Patna: Principal secretary, Excise and prohibition department, K K Pathak who had been claiming the Gopalganj liquor deaths were caused due to heart attacks and consumption of sulphas, on Friday visited Gopalganj and held meeting with the DM and SP of the district where 19 pesons have died in a liquor tragedy.
Pathak while talking to local media said the government would take action against the officers who remained negligent. Excise officials searched the premises of homoeopathic establishments in Gopalganj suspecting the spirit used to manufacture drugs caused deaths in the town.
Former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi too reached Gopalganj and met the families of the victims of the liquor tragedy at Noniya Toli .He demanded action against the officers who connived with the illicit liquor traders.
Gopalganj SP suspended 25 policemen of Town PS on August 18. So far seven people have been arrested in connection with hooch tragedy. Police have named 14 people in the FIR. No action has been intitiated against the excise department personnel.
Meanwhile, police on Friday morning sealed hotedl Chadralok at Muzaffarpur and arrested its owner Rakesh Kumar and manager as three bottles of liquor were found in one of the rooms of the hotel. Police have registered an FIR against nine persons in this connection. District magistrate of Muzaffarpur has been sent a request by excise department to confiscate the hotel under the new Excise and Prohibition law.