Mumbai: Sessions Court Convicts 4 Accused, Acquits 10 In 2015 Malvani Hooch Tragedy

Mumbai: Nine years since hundreds of families were hit by a hooch tragedy in Malvani in June 2015, The sessions court on Monday convicted four of total 14 accused who were prosecuted in connection with the cass.

Calling it a a tragic incident the additional sessions judge Dr. Swapnil Tawshikar, observed that 106 people had lost life and 75 people suffered severe disabilities like loosing eye sight.

In June 2015, the accused involved in the case allegedly prepared spurious liquor which was supplied though a dense network of bootleggers including several woman who did this to support the family financially.

The four accused who are held guilty are - Raju Tapkar alias Raju langda, Donarld Patel, Francis D’mello, Mansur Khan alias Aatik alias Rahul. The court has acquitted them from the charges of murder but has held them guilty for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and for the charges under the Bombay Prohibition Act. The court would hear arguments on quantum of sentence on May 6.

While holding the four guilty the court said, "They used to bring some chemicals from Gujarat and sell here to vendors. The four accused are proved to have been involved in the criminal conspiracy."

The court further observed that Khan is proved to have procured chemical from Gujarat and distributed the same to local vendors who were involved in running hooch den in Malvani. The court noted that the special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat had contended that all the accused were linked in a criminal conspiracy. However, the conspiracy charge was proved only against these four accused.

However, the court said the prosecution failed to prove charges against the other ten accused observing that "analysis of evidence of nearly 240 witnesses, does not define a clear chain of evidence. The prosecution failed to prove the involvement of all the accused in criminal conspiracy."

The first death due to consumption of spurious liquor was reported on June 18, 2015. After this on the next day police arrested Raju. Raju during his custodial interrogation revealed role of other accused who are now acquitted. But this led to several breakthroughs in police investigation. The police at last on June 22, managed to arrest Khan.

The prosecution had claimed that Atik used to procure ethanol which was used for preparing hooch from Vapi. However, when he found the supply was not adequate he started taking help of other accused who would supply him Methnol which was stolen from tankers on Highways at Gujarat.