Pune: 22 excise, police officers suspended after spurious liquor deaths

Twenty-two police officers and Maharashtra Excise Department personnel have been suspended for failing to curb the alleged illegal supply of spurious liquor that killed 14 persons, PTI reported on Saturday.

So far, eight persons have been arrested in connection with the deaths that took place across Pimpri-Chinchwad and Pune over the past two days. One of the persons arrested was identified as Yogesh Wankhede, a resident who allegedly brewed and supplied the alcohol.

Of the 14 persons killed, 10 died in the Phugewadi area of Pimpri Chinchwad, while four others in Pandhare Mala in Pune’s Hadapsar. Five men are also undergoing treatment at a hospital in Pimpri Chinchwad, PTI reported.

Following the incident, an order issued by the Pune Police Commissionerate said that Senior Police Inspector Sanjay Mogale at the Hadapsar police station, Assistant Police Inspector Hasina Sikalgar and Sub-Inspector Hasan Mulani have been suspended in the case.

Six personnel from the Pimpri Chinchwad Police, including a senior inspector, a sub-inspector and four constables, have also been suspended, PTI quoted an unidentified officer as saying.

Superintendent Atul Kanade told the news agency that the state excise department also placed 13 personnel under suspension.

On Friday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the police and the state excise department were investigating the “entire ecosystem” behind the...

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