At least 44 people have died this week in the Bihar district of Saran as a result of fictitious alcohol drinking, according to reports, and more victims are being taken to hospitals. Individuals in the villages said that many people were cremated without a post-mortem out of fear of the authorities, while the district magistrate and superintendent of police of Saran have only reported 26 fatalities as the official toll.
A BJP team led by opposition leader Vijay Kumar Sinha and other MLAs visited the bereaved relatives and sought both a CBI investigation into the killings that occurred in Chhapra and compensation for the surviving family members of the deceased. In addition, they demanded Nitish Kumar, the state's chief minister, step down since he had not carried out his alcohol policy.
The Nitish Kumar-led administration enacted prohibition in 2016 in response to a lady who begged the chief minister to do so at a public program, claiming that impoverished families were experiencing domestic violence and other issues as a result of their drunken spouses.Critics claim that the same strategy is currently proving to be a nightmare for both the CM and the ladies of Bihar.
The ladies of Chhapra who lost loved ones now regard Nitish differently. They attribute the deaths of their spouses, their siblings, and their kids in the hooch catastrophe to the CM and his government. The ladies accused the chief minister of allowing smugglers to operate, the police of working together, and the officials of being corrupt for failing to enforce the law.
FAMILY OF THE VICTIMS ARE ANGRY
"My father drink on Tuesday night, and he passed away the next morning." If the government are providing wine, who will make a complaint against them?" Sarla Devi, a resident, told CNN-News 18.Munni, a relative of another decedent, said that her brother passed away from drinking fake alcohol. She said that he began to have eyesight loss and chest discomfort before passing away around three in the morning.
"My uncle passed away due to the administration's incompetence, not the alcohol," Rahul, another local, remarked. He received inadequate care at the hospital, and an ambulance was also unavailable. It was too late when we tried to take him in a private vehicle. Here, alcohol is quite widely accessible, and vendors openly sell both domestic and handmade booze."Durga Devi, another irate resident, accused Nitish Kumar of the fatalities. "He didn't oversee the distribution of illicit booze." "He didn't control the number of illegal firearms." He wasn't in charge of the unlawful drinking industry. He supports the transaction." "We won't ever cast our votes for him," she said.
According to Sarita Devi, a local, alcohol prohibition has failed. The police and the management under the CM are corrupt and associated with the spirits mafia, and instead of helping us, it has been a nightmare for us, she continued".According to a News 18 investigation, a stock of alcohol that the Mashrakh police in Chhapra had seized had vanished in large quantities from inside the police station, raising concerns about possible collusion between the local police and mafia, who sold the alcohol in pouches at the local Mashrakh market, the exact location from which it was allegedly distributed to the villages, resulting in the deaths of dozens. Excise department employees sent samples of the liquor that had been kept on hand at the Mashrakh police station following previous seizures to determine whether it contained any potentially fatal ingredients.
WHAT THE SUPREME COURT SAID
This year's Supreme Court heard a case involving the Bihar Prohibition. Every law has an impact in terms of the litigation it generates, and there needs to be an analysis and plans made to deal with those consequences before a law is brought into force, the SC said. The SC said that the legislative consequence research, which should have been carried out before drafting the bill, is of utmost priority to them." The Bihar state attorney informed the court that, as of May 11, 2012, a total of 3,78,186 cases had been recorded since the Excise Act went into effect, and that 1,16,103 of those cases had already begun the trial process.
Before the court, the Bihar government stated that it intended to change the Act in order to increase its effectiveness. Following that, the state revised the Act's Section 37, which establishes a fine for alcohol consumption. When an accused person is detected drinking but is not engaged in the trade or smuggling of alcohol, Section 37 applies.
Bihar, a dry state that received condemnation from the SC for its overburdened courts, took action to provide some relief to users of illicit alcoholic beverages. The Bihar Prohibition and Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which was approved by the state parliament in March of this year, stipulates that those who are discovered using alcohol will now have to pay a fine before a magistrate and won't be put in jail. In reality, a recent government circular said that the target of the investigation would be the mafia and bootleggers rather than alcohol consumers.
