Another held in UP, U'khand hooch tragedy; total arrested rises to five

Another man was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the hooch tragedy that claimed over 70 lives in two adjoining districts in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh last week, police said.

At a joint press conference in Roorkee, Haridwar SSP Janmejay Khanduri along with his Saharanpur counterpart Dinesh Kumar said Arjun Kumar, a resident of Dadli village in Bhagwanpur area of Haridwar district, was arrested from near Tejopur by a joint police team of the two states.

With Arjun's arrest, the total number of people held in connection with the spurious liquor tragedy has gone up to five.

Arjun has admitted to his role in the crime and told interrogators that he was in the spurious liquor trade for the last two years, officials said.

Arjun had sold 50 litres of the chemical, with which the deadly batch of spurious liquor was made, to the Saharanpur father-son duo of Hardev and Sukhwinder.

Hardev and Sukhwinder had sold around 35 bottles of the spurious liquor to one Sonu of Balupur village, the officials said. Hardev, Sukhwinder and Sonu have already been arrested.

Sonu sold the liquor to people in the adjoining villages, they said.

Three drums of the chemical have been seized from Arjun, they said. He had bought six drums of the chemical from AC Seluloz Pvt Ltd Roorkee, official said.