Malvani hooch tragedy: Four convicts get 10-year jail

The court had held the four guilty of procuring and selling contaminated liquor in Laxmi Nagar slums in Malvani

MUMBAI: The sessions court on Wednesday sentenced the four convicts held guilty for their roles in the 2015 Malvani hooch tragedy to ten years rigorous imprisonment. Some 106 people lost their lives and 75 others suffered injuries, including losing their eyesight permanently, in the hooch tragedy.

Family members of the hooch tragedy at a protest near Malvani Firebrigade in Mumbai on July 4, 2015. (Hindustan Times)

Additional sessions judge SD Tawshikar observed that no mitigating circumstances had been brought forward which would warrant taking a lenient view and sentenced bootleggers Raju Tapkar aka Raju Langda and Donald Patel, country liquor distributor Francis Thomas D’mello and the prime hooch supplier Mansur Khan aka Atiq aka Rahul Bhai to ten years rigorous imprisonment.

The court had, on April 30, held the four guilty of procuring and selling contaminated liquor in Laxmi Nagar slums in Malvani that led to the worst ever hooch tragedy witnessed by the city, and acquitted 10 others of all the charges for want of evidence.

“They used to bring some chemicals from Gujarat and sell them here to vendors. Accused number 1, 3, 5 and 8 are proven to have been involved in criminal conspiracy,” the court had said while declaring them guilty.

According to special prosecutor Pradip D Gharat, Raju Langda and Donald Patel ran the dens where the victims had consumed the poisonous concoction. Malvani-based country liquor distributor Francis Thomas D’mello had supplied them. The surplus industrial methanol was brought by Mansoor Khan from Gujarat and distributed amongst more than half a dozen city distributors such as Francis.

On Wednesday, the court explained the judgement and sentences handed down to the quartet. “While section 302 (of Indian Penal Code, 1860, murder) has not been proved against you all, it has been proved that you were selling illicit liquor and that it has killed several people,” the judge said while explaining the convicts the quantum of sentence in Marathi.

Special public prosecutor Pradip Gharat during his arguments on the quantum of sentence had on May 6 outlined the gravity of the offence. “The punishment should be exemplary so that it sends a strong message to society and deter people from committing such crimes,” he had insisted. The court, however, did not hand down the maximum sentence – life imprisonment -- to the convicts.

The four convicts were found guilty of committing offences punishable under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 304(II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) and 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) of the Indian Penal Code and for breach of relevant sections of the Bombay Prohibition Act.

On June 18, 2015, residents of Laxmi Nagar slums in Malvani who had consumed contaminated liquor developed respiratory problems, nausea and diarrhoea. Within a week, 106 of them died. Forty-odd people who were hospitalised with similar symptoms survived the tragedy. Over a year after the incident, the Mumbai crime branch arrested 14 people, including suppliers, distributors and dealers of the spurious liquor - industrial methanol diluted by mixing water.

According to the police, Mansoor Khan used to purchase methanol from Vapi in Gujarat and supply it to three city-based dealers, who would ‘dilute’ the chemical with water and sell it in small packets for ₹10 to 20 per piece.