Key accused in Sagar spurious liquor tragedy held after police encounter
Lakhera, a resident of Chhatarpur district in Madhya Pradesh, has 25 criminal cases registered against him in different police stations in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Bhopal: The ‘key accused’ in the Sagar spurious liquor that claimed the lives of more than two dozen people was on Friday arrested following a short encounter with the police in a jungle in Madhya Pradesh.
This was informed by chief minister Mohan Yadav here.
Ravi Lakhera (45), who carried a reward of Rs. 20,000 on his head, was arrested following a brief encounter between him and the police in the jungle near the Hanuman Tong temple in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district, police said.
The alleged kingpin of an interstate illicit liquor trade network received a bullet in his leg, and was subsequently arrested, while his two associates accompanying him managed to escape, police said.
Lakhera, a resident of Chhatarpur district in Madhya Pradesh, has 25 criminal cases registered against him in different police stations in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
He was last arrested on May four this year by the police in Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Lakhera and his wife allegedly run an illicit liquor trade network, functioning in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
According to the police, Lakhera owned multiple licensed liquor shops in Chhatarpur.
A police probe has indicated that after his release on bail last month, he came in contact with Tatarwara-based Karni Sena leader Chandrabhan alias Chandra Rajput and a liquor shop contractor Manish Lodhi.
Police had seized a spurious liquor manufacturing facility in the agricultural plot of Rajput.
The counterfeit liquor was supplied through the supply network of Lodhi at much cheaper price than the original Sagar Gold and Mumbai Whisky brands.
Lodhi was still absconding, police said.
Of the 33 accused, named in the FIR filed in connection with the incident, 18 have so far been arrested.
The incident has so far claimed the lives of 28 people.
However, the official death toll has been put at 16.
As many as 46 people, who fell ill after consuming the spurious liquor, have still been undergoing treatment in the Bundelkhand Medical College Hospital in Sagar.
