After spurious liquor claimed 104 lives in Malwani recently, many of the victims' widows lamented the fact that the hooch racket wasn't shut down earlier. Pic/PTI
The Malwani hooch tragedy has already turned the heat on illicit alcohol rackets running in the city, and in order to shut down all such operations in the vicinity, the Mumbai Police have now unleashed a secret weapon - women who are fed up of their alcoholic husbands' ways.
Over 100 wives have joined forces with Zone XI of the police department to flush out hooch racketeers from Goregaon to Dahisar who target their husbands with cheap, spurious liquor. Notably, many of these women are widows who lost their husbands to toxic booze in the recent Malwani moonshine case.
These women are now providing information to the police and the Crime Branch about where their husbands would source the liquor from, and according to sources, this has helped cops raid as many as 36 places and make 22 arrests in the past few days.
DCP (Zone XI) Vikram Deshmane told mid-day, "We are trying to save other lives by taking help from women in our zone to nab the accused. We have already formed a team and they have been giving information to us. Only women are there in this team, because they have correct information about where their husbands drink daily."
One of the women from the team said, "My husband is alcoholic and he drinks daily. I want him to stop drinking this hooch that killed so many people. By working with the police, I am helping my own family and saving my husband's life."