By IANS,
Gandhinagar : The Gujarat government was compelled to introduce amendments in the prohibition law, providing for death penalty to bootleggers, as the the president’s assent to the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime (GUJCOC) bill has been delayed, a senior official said here Thursday.
The state cabinet Wednesday approved amendments in the Bombay Prohibition (Gujarat Amendment) Act, proposing death sentence or life term for those who manufacture and sell the killer brew – which claimed 136 lives in Ahmedabad last week.
If the GUJCOC were in force, its provisions would have been sufficient to ensure stringent punishment for the culprits, the senior home department official said.
The GUJCOC, modelled on a law of Maharashtra, is meant to give more power to police in nabbing gangsters and terrorists but the central government has sought amendments in it.
The amendments proposed to the Act provide for a minimum of seven to 10 years of jail for anyone manufacturing, selling, buying, keeping or transporting country liquor and up to life imprisonment for those who cause death due to manufacture, sale or distribution of country liquor.
It also proposes life term for those who supply raw material for the manufacture of the country liquor in case of death of those who consume such liquor, a year’s imprisonment and a fine of Rs.3,000 for officials of the prohibition department or the police officers who fails to send the seized liquor consignment for a forensic examination.
Moreover, all vehicles transporting such liquor may not be released on bond till a judgement is delivered by the court.
Sale and consumption of alcohol is prohibited in Gujarat.
Reacting to the proposed bill, Gujarat Congress president Siddharth Patel said: “The Narendra Modi government is just trying to divert the attention of people from the hooch tragedy by seeking to amend the Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949.
“The state government by arresting 800 bootleggers in the aftermath of the tragedy has only shown that these bootleggers could not have survived without shelter. What is required in Gujarat today is the proper implementation of the already existing prohibition laws instead of seeking amendments in the law.”