‘Hooch’ deaths: Kill them like Gen Dyer, why slow death, Manjhi asks Nitish

This is not the first time Manjhi has raised his voice against the liquor ban in Bihar, which was imposed in April 2016.

Former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Wednesday attacked the Nitish Kumar government over the suspected hooch deaths in Sitamarhi and Gopalganj earlier this week.

Jitan Ram Manjhi in Patna (PTI)

“Why are you (Nitish Kumar) distributing death to Dalit people in instalments through spurious liquor? Why don’t you ask people to stand in a queue and kill them like General Dyer did,” Manjhi said in a post in Hindi on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday.

“If you have failed to stop deaths due to poisonous liquor, then what is the relevance of the liquor prohibition act? At least you should learn from Gujarat,” the former CM said.

This is not the first time Manjhi has raised his voice against the liquor ban in Bihar, which was imposed in April 2016. He claimed liquor is freely available across the state and hooch tragedies are taking place in large numbers.

On November 17, five people from three villages in Sitamarhi district died allegedly after consuming spurious liquor. On November 19, five persons died in a suspected hooch tragedy in Gopalganj district.

The Gopalganj district administration had claimed all of them died due to different diseases.

However, on Wednesday, kin of one of the deceased, Tinku Ram, lodged an FIR with Baikunthpur police station against one Krishna Rai and 10 others, alleging that Rai was asking them not to lodge case and forcing them to sign a paper saying the death was due to some disease.

The BJP, which sent a delegation to Gopalganj to meet the victim’s family, also attacked the government over the suspected hooch deaths.

Rajya Sabha member and former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi said the state government has completely failed in implementing the policy of complete prohibition.

“On one hand, the police administration is earning huge income by helping the liquor mafia and on the other hand, to hide the death due to poisonous liquor, it is registering death due to unknown disease in the records so that the dependents do not get compensation,” Modi alleged.

The ruling JD(U) called Manjhi’s allegations “baseless”. “He is making statements scripted by BJP,” said JD(U) spokesperson Himraj Ram.