Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh orders a magisterial enquiry on the 38 deaths, who are consuming illicit liquor case on Friday. Jalandhar Divisional Commissioner appointed as the magisterial enquiry commission to probe the facts and circumstances leading to the deaths, as well as into any other issues connected to the incident.

38 people have died in Punjab after drinking spurious liquor, with deaths reported from Amritsar, Tarantaran and Gurudaspur districts on Friday. 10 people had died in Amritsar Rural, nine in Batala and 19 in Tarantaran till Friday night. The death toll is expected to increase as the hooch network was spread across districts, said Punjab DGP Dinakar Gupta.

He said the five deaths were reported from Mucchal and Tangra villages in Amritsar Rural on the night of July 29^th. A huge quantity of spurious liquors, drums and storage cans have been recovered and sent for chemical analysis, said the DGP, adding that eight bootleggers had been arrested. IGP SPS Parmar had earlier confirmed deaths in Amritsar and Batala. It is being rumored that spurious liquor is the case of death, but we have to wait for the postmortem report, he said.

Balwinder Kaur of Mucchal village, who was involved in the illicit liquor business, had been arrested in the case. Balwinder’s husband was among the victims. She was booked under IPC section 304 and Excise Act. Gurudaspur Deputy Commissioner Mohammed Ishfaq claimed that the families of poor victims had refused to lodge an FIR and maintained that their kin had died due to ailments like heart disease. He said postmortem examinations of two deceased were being conducted and that one of the two people referred to Amritsar hospital had died. Most of those who died were from Hathi Gate area of Batala.