Main accused in hooch tragedy held in Indore

Mumbai: The Thane crime branch arrested an accused involved in 2015’s Malvani hooch tragedy case in which 94 people died. The arrested accused, identified as Dharmendra Singh Tomar, was picked up from Indore in Madhya Pradesh after the police officers received a tip-off. Another accused in the hooch tragedy case, who was his partner in crime, is still at large. Tomar was produced in the court and will be remanded in police custody till Thursday.

According to police sources, the arrested, accused Tomar alias Sanjay Singh, who was on the run for the last two years, was nabbed from Indore in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday and brought to Mumbai on Monday. The police had destroyed illicit liquor centres in Shil Daighar and was looking for the main accused, who used to supply the poisonous chemical to be mixed with the liquor.

The police received a tip-off that the person involved in this case, who sought shelter in his hometown in Rajendra Nagar in Indore, was the main accused in the Malvani tragedy.

The crime branch officials then sent a team to Indore to nab the accused and arrested him on Sunday. On questioning, Tomar revealed that he had supplied chemical to be mixed with liquor in Malvani hooch tragedy, which claimed 94 people.

Thane’s DCP (Crime) Abhishek Trimukhe told The Asian Age, “The accused Tomar alias Singh was arrested following a tip-off, and he has confessed to his involvement in the Malvani hooch tragedy case of 2015. He will be further interrogated in Mumbai, and his business partners are likely to be traced.”

The police claimed that Tomar played an important role along with his absconding accomplice in the case as they were responsible for supplying the poisonous ethyl alcohol to the illicit liquor centres.