Mumbai, June 25 (IANS) The Maharashtra Legislative Council witnessed a heated uproar on Thursday over the recent spurious liquor tragedy in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. While the Opposition slammed the state government for its alleged lack of sensitivity and failure to prevent the incident, the ruling alliance hit back, accusing the Opposition of politicising a tragic event.

BJP MLC Amit Gorkhe moved a calling attention motion demanding immediate financial assistance for the families of those who lost their lives to the toxic alcohol.

Participating in the debate, Opposition MLCs, including Sachin Ahir, Ambadas Danve and Anil Parab (Shiv Sena-UBT), raised serious concerns over the official death toll.

They alleged that several victims were cremated without post-mortem examinations, suggesting that the actual number of casualties could be higher than reported. The Opposition members pointed out that illegal liquor dens had been operating for years in areas such as Hadapsar, Dapodi, Bopodi and Fugewadi.

They demanded strict action against senior police and excise department officials, seeking charges of culpable homicide under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against the alleged kingpins, Yogesh Wankhede and Radheshyam Prajapati, instead of merely registering cases under the Excise Act. They further demanded a thorough probe into how 215 litres of lethal methanol travelled from Bhiwandi to Pune.

Replying to the debate, Minister of State for Home Yogesh Kadam assured the House that the government was not shielding anyone. He announced that multiple officials, including a Senior Police Inspector, an Assistant Police Inspector, a Police Sub-Inspector, as well as inspectors and sub-inspectors from the Excise Department, had already been suspended. He added that BNS provisions relating to culpable homicide had already been invoked against the accused.

Minister Kadam further said that, since the matter appeared to involve an organised crime network, the government was seriously exploring the possibility of invoking the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against the prime accused after reviewing the relevant legal provisions.

The House turned chaotic when Sachin Ahir questioned why neither the Chief Minister, the Deputy Chief Ministers nor the Guardian Minister had visited the victims’ families.

Minister Kadam countered by saying that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had demonstrated the government’s seriousness by ordering a CID probe and noted that Minister Girish Mahajan, along with local representatives, had visited the site. Dissatisfied with the response, Opposition members began raising slogans.

Intervening during the uproar, Industries Minister Uday Samant questioned why the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief and the Yuva Sena chief had not visited the site themselves if their representative, Sachin Ahir, had done so. This triggered strong protests from the Opposition benches, with Ahir asking what connection the party leadership had to a failure that, according to him, fell entirely on the government’s shoulders.

As tempers flared on both sides, Chairperson Ram Shinde intervened to conclude the discussion, expressing hope that the government would implement robust measures to prevent such tragedies in the future.

Clarifying the casualty count, Minister Yogesh Kadam confirmed that post-mortem reports for all 22 deceased persons had been received, establishing toxic liquor as the cause of death. He assured the House that the financial compensation announced by the government would be provided to all 22 affected families and that the disbursement process would be completed within the next seven days.

–IANS

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