Ahmedabad, July 18: The alleged kingpin of the Ahmedabad hooch tragedy, Vinod Dagri, was arrested from Vadodara on Friday along with one Jayesh Thakkar, accused in the infamous solvent scam of 1999.
The Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) also arrested another Vadodara-based bootlegger, Sunil More. Thakkar is the alleged supplier of the 1,200 litres of methanol used in the local brew that claimed over 130 lives in Ahmedabad recently.
With this, the total number of people arrested in connection with the tragedy has risen to 13. “Some more names have opened up during police investigations and more arrests are likely,” Gujarat Director General of Police S S Khandwawala told media persons in Gandhinagar.
Police investigations reveal that Chauhan had met More in a Junagadh jail last year when the two were serving their PASA term. “Chauhan had asked More to help him contact someone who deals in chemicals.
When they came out of the jail, More introduced him to Thakkar through his acquaintances, Vadodara-based Rakesh Giri and his uncle Subash Giri. The uncle-nephew duo is absconding,” Khandwawala added.
Preliminary interrogation of the trio revealed that Thakkar, who deals in chemicals illegally, had sent methanol samples to Chauhan on July 2. “A day later, Chauhan and More procured about 1,200 litres of methanol from Thakkar.
This methanol was used in spurious hooch, which was later distributed to Ahmedabad-based bootleggers, Harishankar Kahar, Daddu Chhara and others,” he said.
According to the police, Chauhan had been hiding in Surat, Bharuch, Godhra and Vadodara after deaths were reported due to the consumption of liquor supplied by him.
A resident of Vanthwadi village in Mehmedabad, Chauhan had been running an undercover bootlegging business for the last several years.
He has been arrested under PASA four times.
“Investigations reveal that this was the first time that Chauhan had attempted to use chemicals in the locally brewed hooch,” Khandwawala said.
He added that More had been arrested earlier on charges of murder, assault and violation of prohibition rules. “He has been arrested under PASA twice,” the DGP said.
Thakkar, Khandwawala said, has been booked by the Gujarat ATS, CID (Crime), Anand district police and Vadodara city police several times for illegal deals of chemicals.
The police added that Thakkar had managed to get a supply department’s license for his chemical business and that his petrol pump at Mogar near Anand was sealed by the supply department for allegedly practicing illegal activities there.
Conspiracy angle not ruled out
Gujarat Director General of Police S S Khandwawala said on Friday that the investigators have not ruled out the possibility of “conspiracy” behind the tragedy.
“We are investigating as to whether it was a conspiracy to kill people or just an accident,” he told reporters.
He added that kingpin Vinod Dagri had destroyed the spurious hooch samples in Mehmedabad following the first day of the tragedy, which took lives in Majoor Gam area of Ahmedabad.
Although he ruled out the presence of any police-bootleggers nexus, he said the Ahmedabad police commissioner is investigating in this direction also.
–Agencies