17 people died in Bihar's Gopalganj after drinking toxic home-made liquor bought from bootleggers.
All 15 policemen at the Gopalganj police station have been suspended in connection with the toxic liquor deaths in the state.
"The 15 policemen, including the Officer In-charge of Town police station under which the tragedy took place in Khajurbanni locality, were suspended yesterday on charge of dereliction of duty," Superintendent of Police Raviranjan Kumar told Press trust of India.
The tragedy was the first major incident after Bihar was declared a total dry state in April this year. Santosh Kumar has been made the new officer-in-charge of the police station, the superintendent of police who ordered suspension of the errant policemen, said.
Meanwhile, with the death of one more victim at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) yesterday, the toll has climbed to 16, District Magistrate Rahul Kumar said. Four others are still admitted in PMCH, Principal of PMCH SN Sinha said today.
Asked about media reports suggesting that all the four have lost their vision in the tragedy, Mr Sinha said eye surgeons have been directed to examine their eyes.
The district magistrate said that viscera and blood samples of the victims were handed over to a Muzaffarpur Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) team last evening.
With post-mortem report remaining inconclusive, all eyes are now set on the FSL report to unravel whether the Gopalganj tragedy was linked to consumption of spurious liquor or not.
One more person has been arrested in connection with Gopalganj incident taking the total number of those arrested to seven, the official said.
The police officer said that seven more accused are at large and hectic search was on for them.
Principal Secretary of Excise and Prohibition KK Pathak is visiting Gopalganj today in connection with the incident.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who has expressed grave concern over the Gopalganj tragedy has said that culprits would be dealt under the stringent new liquor law.