Ranchi: A local court on Monday awarded rigorous life imprisonment to influential hooch manufacturer Prahlad Singhania, hooch trader Indrabhan Thapa and JAP havildar Gautam Thapa who also managed Indrabhan's business, in the case related to the deaths of three Sukhdeonagar youths last September after drinking the deadly concoction.
This is the first time in recent memory where an influential bootlegger like Singhania was awarded life term.
The court of additional judicial commissioner of Ranchi civil courts Shree Prakash Dubey also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on the three convicts. If they fail to pay, they will have to spend two years extra in judicial custody. The court directed the fine to be paid as compensation to the kin of the deceased Sukhdeonagar youths Amit Tiwari, Sandeep Choudhary and Arvind Kumar Yadav.
The court on August 16 had held Singhania, Gautam and Indrabhan guilty under Sections 304 part 1 (intention to cause death) and 34 (act done by several persons) of the IPC and freed the fourth accused Umesh Gurung owing to lack of evidence.
"The court viewed it as a murder case as traces of poisonous methyl and ethyl alcohol were found in the liquor made by Singhania, which was sold. Singhania knew that methyl and ethyl traces could cause death," said additional public prosecutor D.N. Dwivedi.
The prosecution produced 15 witnesses while one defense witness was cross-examined.
Last year in Ranchi, over a dozen people, including Amit, Sandeep and Arvind, three JAP jawans and a volleyball coach had died after drinking spurious liquor in branded bottles brewed by Singhania's distillery in Namkum and sold from many places. Besides Indrabhan's Doranda shop, from where the ill-fated trio bought liquor, others selling hooch made by Singhania included shops/shacks near Nepal House and CID headquarters, not far from high court.
This case, FIR 431/17 at Sukhdeonagar thana was lodged on September 4, 2017, after the trio died and two others Vikas Ram and Santosh fell seriously ill. Then Ranchi SSP Kuldeep Dwivedi, currently DIG (Kolhan), had taken keen interest in the case. Other cases are lodged against Singhania, to be taken up one by one. The CID has taken some up.
Singhania was arrested last October from his brother-in-law's home in Jamshedpur. He confessed he had been in illicit liquor trade since 1998 and ran an unauthorised distillery at Jorar Bustee in Namkum. His brother Naresh and son Tarun were business partners. The first FIR against him was in 2005. He had been arrested before but managed bail.
