Two held for making hooch

New Delhi, May 12 (IANS) Two men have been arrested for manufacturing the spurious liquor that caused death of over 30 people in the capital during the last two months, police said Tuesday.

Raman, 32, and his younger brother Chaman, 30 - both residents of Gurgaon - were arrested by the special operations squad of the crime branch from Kapashera area Monday. Two bottling machines, hundreds of fake labels of seven registered country liquor brands - Kinnu, Murthal No.1, Jagadhari No.1, Shokeen Masaledar, Black Bull, Malta Mastana and Santra Shokeen, bottle caps, thousands of liquor bottles, a large quantity of raw spirit, and liquor preparation materials were seized from them.

'Raman and Chaman revealed that they had been running a spurious liquor manufacturing unit at Basai in Gurgaon. After the deaths due to spurious liquor, they closed it down and removed the entire manufacturing material to another place in the same area,' said Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Satyendra Garg.

Garg said the initial interrogation of the two revealed they were involved in the supply of spurious liquor in the areas of Raghubir Nagar and Dabri. 'After the furore due to liquor deaths in Delhi, they closed down the illegal manufacturing unit and dumped the material in the rented premises,' he added.

The police have registered at least 26 cases in the hooch tragedy. Last week, police arrested Gautam alias Cheeku, 36, his wife Maya, 35, and mother Manjeet Kaur, 55, for supplying the spurious liquor, which resulted in many deaths, mainly of labourers, in Dabri, Khyala and Rajouri Garden localities during March and April.

Kamla, 52, her husband Rajender, 48, Mukesh Gupta, 35, Kaushalya, 62, and Seema, 30 had been arrested earlier in the case.