Deaths climb to 14 in Ujjain hooch tragedy; Shivraj Chouhan orders SIT probe

Death toll in the illicit hooch tragedy that took place in Ujjain district, 190 Kms west of Bhopal, went up to 14 on Thursday with seven more bodies recovered from certain localities in the town, prompting chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to order a probe by a special investigation team and superintendent of police of the district to suspend four police personnel, said police and state government communique. The police personnel suspended include Kharakuan police station in charge ML Meena, sub-inspector Niranjan Sharma and constables Sheikh Anwar and Nawaz Sharif for not taking action against sale of illicit hooch in their area, said a press release from superintendent of police, Ujjain Manoj Singh. Confirming recovery of 14 dead bodies in the past two days Ujjain’s inspector general of police Rakesh Gupta said, “Ten of the deaths are linked with illicit hooch. We will be able to comment on the remaining deaths only after receiving the post-mortem reports.” He said, “During the investigation, police found that the accused had been making intoxicant named ‘potali’ by using methanol in a multilevel parking of Ujjain Municipal Corporation in the Chhatri Chowk area for the past one month.