Bihar hooch tragedy: Patna high court acquits 13

The Patna high court said that the prosecution failed to prove the role of the 13 beyond reasonable doubt

The Patna high court has acquitted nine men awarded the death sentence and four women sentenced to life in prison in connection with a hooch tragedy, which left 19 people dead in Bihar’s Gopalganj in August 2016, saying the prosecution failed to prove their role in it beyond reasonable doubt.

Patna high court. (HT PHOTO)

A bench of justices Ashwini Kumar Singh and Harish Kumar on Wednesday ordered their immediate release unless they are required in any other case. A court in Goplaganj convicted the 13 in February 2021.

In its 89-page judgment, the bench noted the investigation in the case was started without the registration of a First Information Report. Bandhu Ram, who reported the matter to the police, was not a witness to it nor did the investigating officer meet him during the investigation.

Kanhaiya Prasad Singh, the defence lawyer, argued the prosecution did not bring on record even the names of the 19 who died due to poisonous liquor. He added their post-mortem reports were also not brought on the record.

The bench found no independent witness was examined. The two seizure witnesses were not the residents of village Khajurbani, where the incident took place. “The two so-called independent witnesses to the seizures...Paltu Kumar and Swaminath Sah were not examined by the prosecution. ..Swaminath has been examined on behalf of the defence. He deposed that two years ago when he had gone to the Gopalganj Town Police Station for lodging a case, the SHO [station house officer] had taken his signature on 4-5 blank sheets of paper and asked him to go, but the case was not registered.”

The bench said in the absence of examination of Kumar during trial and in absence of any plausible explanation for the same and for the reason that another witness was examined as a defence witness, no reliance can be placed on the truthfulness of the seizure lists.