Mandsaur: Mandsaur district Congress has formed a three members panel to probe the Khakhrai village incident in which three people died and one is undergoing treatment at the district hospital after consumption of suspected spurious liquor.
The incident took place at Khakhrai village which comes under the assembly constituency of state Excise Minister Jadish Devda. As soon as news of deaths spread, the administration suspected a sub-inspector of the excise department for dereliction of duty.
Panelists include district Congress president Navkrushna Patil, Neemuch district Congress leader Rajkumar Ahir and Congress leader Umrao Singh Gurjar. Panel will visit places of each and every deceased and those who are undergoing treatment at the hospital. They will record the statement of the kin to bring fore the reality. The team will later submit its report to the former chief minister and state Congress president Kamal Nath.
The deceased were identified as Modiram Meghwal, 41, Ghanshyam Mogia, 35, and Manohar Bagri 35.
Earlier, senior Congress leader Parshuram Sisodia, state general secretary Shamlal Jokchand have described this incident as the failure of the minister, MLA, administration.
“Khakrai village incident is enough to prove how a nexus between the police, excise, politicians and illegal liquor traders are functional here,” Congress leaders accused.
Jokchand has alleged that seven people have died in villages like Khakhrai, Gudbheli, Pipliya, Sindpan and many people are serious. Congress leaders have demanded immediate financial assistance of Rs 10 lakhs to the families of the deceased.
Meanwhile, after the incident, excise department sub-inspector Narendra Damar was suspended for dereliction of duty. District collector Manoj Pushp and Superintendent of Police Siddharth Choudhary visited the village post the incident. The police said the exact cause of deaths reported from Khakhrai village will only be known after the postmortem reports. Khakhrai village comes under Piplia Mandi police station area.
As of now, the police have arrested one person for illegally selling liquor. A part of the house used for this work was demolished on Sunday night.
Malhargarh MLA and the state finance minister Jagdish Deora expressed grief over the incident and directed the administration to take strict action against the culprits. Deora ordered a probe into the matter.
