SC Restores Trial Court’s Conviction In 1980 Hooch Tragedy in Haryana [Read Judgment]

The Supreme Court’s Vacation Bench of Justices A.K.Sikri and Ashok Bhushan on Thursday, June 29, set aside the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s acquittal of the two accused in the 1980 hooch tragedy, which claimed 36 lives and blinded 44 persons at Village Kalanwali,  Sirsa District, Haryana.

The Session Judge had convicted two out of the 48 accused and sentenced the two to life imprisonment, in 2000.  The High Court, however, allowed their appeals and acquitted them in 2006.   The High Court  had indicted the State Government for its negligence, which led to the tragedy, and directed it to pay compensation of Rs.2 lakh each to the heirs of 36 persons who lost their lives, and Rs.1.50 lakh to those who were blinded.

Neither the State nor any of the aggrieved persons challenged the acquittal of the two accused by the High Court.  While hearing an appeal by the two convicts, the Division Bench of the High Court observed that the acquittal of others was not called for, and the matter required reconsideration by the High Court.   The Division Bench directed the Advocate General, Haryana, to appeal against the acquittal.

The Supreme Court, however, set aside this direction of the Division Bench of the High Court in 2002.  The matter was then heard by the Full Bench of the High Court, which gave its verdict in 2006, which was appealed against by the State in the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court took note of the disbursal of compensation to the heirs of the victims, and decided not to reopen it.

The prosecution alleged that the accused had sold adulterated alcohol containing methanol poison, and, thus, they committed an act so imminently dangerous that it must in all probability cause death or such bodily injury as was likely to cause death and, in fact, it did result in the death of so many persons.  The trial court, invoking the provisions of Section 300 ‘fourthly’ of IPC, convicted the two.

The High Court, however, found that though the cause of death was established, namely, consumption of methyl alcohol, but no connection was established by the prosecution of consuming the said alcohol by the deceased and other victims from the bottles that had been purchased by the victims from the vends of the respondents.

The Supreme Court found that the High Court erroneously ignored contemporary statements of persons who lost their eye-sight immediately after consuming the spurious liquor.  Their statements become relevant under Section 7 of the Indian Evidence Act, the bench held.

The two accused were given the licence for running liquor vends in Kalanwali town at the relevant time.  They and their staff tried to destroy the evidence in the form of other bottles which were lying in the stock/vends by throwing them away in the river/canal.  The High Court brushed aside this evidence because no attempt was made to get the same tested.  “Even if this is a lapse on the part of the prosecution, this very conduct of the respondents in throwing away the remaining stock becomes a supporting  piece of evidence along with other evidence brought on record”, the Supreme Court held.

The High Court, the SC held, committed manifest error in observing that evidence was not produced to connect the respondents with the tragedy.  The culpability of the respondents-accused was proved beyond doubt by producing plethora of evidence, the Supreme Court held.

“The respondents (accused) cannot be treated as mere cat’s paw and naïve.  They have exploited the resilience nature of bucolic and rustic villagers”, the Supreme Court observed.

The Court directed the two respondents to surrender and undergo the sentence inflicted by the trial court.