Playing with human life has become a game for those who sell poison in the name of liquor . The death of 114 people due to poisonous liquor in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand is not the first incident, even before, people have died like this, but the game continues.
On January 13, 2012, on the information that raw liquor was being made in Malihabad, fifteen kilometers from the capital city of Lucknow, police raided the forest near village Ghola . Police were unable to recover liquor as the traders had already fled the scene, but the clutter created due to police raid resulted in death of Kallu a local resident, as he fell into the Behta drain. The case caught so much attention that the policemen concerned were booked under SC/ST Act and they were also held responsible for the death of Kallu. Afterwards, it was proved in the investigation that Kallu was a liquor businessman.
This year, when the police raided Auliya Kheda village in Lucknow district, to nab raw liquor producers, they had to face tremendous opposition from the villagers. The women associated with liquor business attacked the police and by pelting stones forced the police out of the village. Not only this, later these women also protested by blocking the road and levelled serious charges against the police personnel . As a result, the police were on the back foot and the liquor traders managed to escape the action.
These incidents are from Lucknow district, and from this we can imagine that what kind of influence these liquor traders have in other cities of UP. Clearly, this kind of power is not possible without any political influence. It is also well known that this type of power and influence can not be there without the the backing of corrupt officers sitting in the district administration. But the other side is that when an incident happens, the fingers are raised towards the police to take action, whose morale has been broken first. The mention of the events of Malihabad and Auliya Kheda is enough to tell what our police can do in such a situation .
After the events of 2012, on 11 January 2015, 58 people lost their life in Lucknow and Unnao district after drinking spurious liquor. After this incident, dozens of raw liquor traders were sent to jail after high level campaign was run. It was normal for a few days but now the business is flourishing in villages like Ghola, Auliya Kheda, Ramnagar, Mohajjipur. The trend of making raw liquor is not diminishing among these traders. Unemployment is also a very important factor behind this, that people instead of doing hard work like making and selling liquor. There is a separate world of data, it is being reported, that here in the year 2018-19, 75 people who made and sold raw liquor were sent to jail and 54 cases have been registered.