Key accused in Gujarat hooch tragedy arrested

August 31st, 2009 AHMEDABAD - The police detained at least seven women for selling illicit liquor known as hooch in local parlance that recently claimed three lives in Gujarat. Two breathed their last on Friday while one more person died on Saturday after consuming drinks laced with a chemical used in making perfumes.

July 28th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - The Gujarat State Assembly on Tuesday passed a Bill proposing stringent punishment up to death penalty to deal with illicit liquor trade in the follow up of the recent hooch tragedy that claimed over 130 lives in the State. The Bombay Prohibition (Gujarat Amendment) Bill 2009 was passed with a majority vote in the House.

July 22nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - A group of Congress legislators from Gujarat called on President Pratibha Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and sought her intervention in the state's governance on Wednesday. The legislators blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled government for deterioration of law and order situation in the state.

July 16th, 2009 GANDHINAGAR - Renowned danseuse and social activist Mallika Sarabhai took out a march on Thursday along with several locals to voice their ire and protest against the hooch tragedy that claimed around 130 lives in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Sarabhai and family members of victims, who died after consumption of spurious liquor, led a march to the Gujarat state's Assembly to demand strict action against those guilty.

July 15th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - The Gujarat government on Wednesday declared that it would soon bring a new law having a provision to punish dealers of spurious liquor with seven years in imprisonment to capital punishment. The State government has come into action following wide uproar over the death of 152 people in Ahmedabad due to drinking illegally brewed liquor.

July 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Congress Party MPs today staged a protest against hooch tragedy in Gujarat that killed at least 130 people due to consumption of spurious liquor. Congress has alleged that a BJP Corporator of Mahemdabad Municipality was behind the hooch tragedy.

July 13th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - The hooch tragedy in Ahmedabad was caused by the mixing of a huge quantity of methyl alcohol with the spurious liquor, doctors have said. "Methanol, which is not for human consumption, was found in large quantity in the patients who were admitted to the civil hospital after consuming spurious liquor," Assistant administrator of civil hospital Dr Gautam Sharma said.

July 12th, 2009 AHMEDABAD J - The toll in the Ahmedabad hooch tragedy has risen to 127 following fourteen more deaths. According to police, 229 people are still admitted to various city hospitals.

July 11th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - Rejecting liquor baron Viajy Mallya's suggestion to rethink the state's prohibition policy, the Gujarat government said, that he should look at his liquor business and keep out of state's affairs. With the death toll of state's worst liquor tragedy nearing 130, Mallya, the owner of United Breweries, had said the enforcement of prohibition is becoming a mockery, which leads to illegal, unhygienic and unsupervised production of poisonous cocktails that claim innocent lives, and called the politicians to rethink over the prohibition policy in the interest of the people.

July 11th, 2009 AHMEDABAD J - The toll in Ahmedabad hooch tragedy has rises to 122after nine more deaths were reported. The police said that now 122 people have died and 227 were admitted to various city hospitals.

July 10th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - Schools and colleges remained closed in Ahmedabad in Gujarat on Friday as a mark of protest over the death of around 105 people due to consumption of spurious liquor. Cases of people dying after consuming spurious liquor were reported on Monday and by Thursday (around105 deaths were reported.

July 10th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - The Gujarat hooch tragedy death toll has risen to 103. According to police, the number of fatalities could go up as about 200 people are still undergoing treatment.he new cases were reported from Odhav, Amaraiwadi, Rakhial and Raipur.

July 9th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - Police in Gujarat remain clueless regarding the original supplier of the killer brew which has so far claimed 65 lives in the state during the past 72 hours, though a notorious bootlegger from the city, Harishankar Kahar alias Hari, was nabbed by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch late Wednesday night. "We have nabbed the key suspect in the killer brew case and he is cooperating with the investigation.

May 6th, 2009 KOLKATA - With nine more people succumbing overnight, the toll in the hooch tragedy in West Bengal's East Midnapore district rose to 20 Wednesday, police said. Three people were still admitted to hospital in serious condition, an officer at the state police control room said here.

May 5th, 2009 KOLKATA - The toll in the hooch tragedy in West Bengal's East Midnapore district rose Tuesday to 11 - seven died in Tamluk and the others in city hospitals - while at least 23 were still battling for life, police said. 'At least seven people died in Tamluk itself,' East Midnapore police superintendent Pallab Kanti Ghosh told IANS.