India News | Aligarh Hooch Tragedy Accused 'dies' in Jail, Judicial Probe Ordered

Aligarh (UP), Dec 4 (PTI) A hooch tragedy accused allegedly died in a jail here, prompting the authorities to order a judicial probe after her family members protested over the incident.

Renu Sharma (41) was rushed to the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College hospital here on Friday night, where she was declared dead on arrival, police said.

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She is a former block pramukh and was arrested in connection with the hooch tragedy, which had claimed several lives in the district earlier this year.

While the officials put the death figure at 40, unconfirmed reports claimed that over 100 people died after drinking spurious liquor.

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A senior official said a judicial inquiry has been ordered into the incident as her family members staged a protest, demanding fixing accountability of the jail authorities.

Renu's husband Rishi Sharma, one of the key accused in the case, and five other members of her family are also lodged in the Aligarh jail, police said.

Her family members alleged that the jail authorities did not release her despite the fact that she had secured bail on health grounds earlier this week.

She had been suffering from a host of illnesses at the time of the arrest on May 25.

She was admitted to the hospital several times and it was only on Thursday that she had been discharged from the hospital after being under treatment there for several days, the family members alleged.

As soon as the news of Sharma's death spread, her supporters and family members gathered at the city morgue and raised slogans against the jail authorities.

Her family members, who sat on a dharna at the mortuary, said they would not conduct her last rites until other family members, who are in the jail, are released on parole for it.

Several opposition leaders have demanded a high-level probe into the incident.

Aligarh Congress president Santosh Singh told reporters that any inquiry would be meaningless unless top jail officials are booked for abetment and negligence leading to the death and not suspended immediately.

A senior police official told PTI that a judicial inquiry has been ordered and the decision to release her husband and other family members on parole for the last rites "rested with the court ".

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)