172 people had died due to methyl alcohol toxicity from illicit liquor in West Bengal (Representational)
A court in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district on Friday sentenced four people to life imprisonment in connection with one of the worst tragedies involving spurious liquor that left 172 people dead in 2011.
Additional district and sessions judge Partha Sarathi Chakraborty also slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 on each of them.
If they fail to pay the fine, the convicts would have to undergo an additional imprisonment for six months.
The court had Thursday found Noor Islam Fakir alias Khora Badshah, the prime accused, and three others - Dukhi Laskar, Khairul Laskar and Nazmul alias Kola Laskar - guilty in the case.
The judge convicted them under IPC sections 273 (sale of noxious food or drink) and 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and provisions under the Bengal Excise Act.
Khora Badshah, who had manufactured the spurious liquor, was also convicted under IPC section 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and 328 (causing hurt by means of poison).
The court had acquitted six others due to lack of evidence.
In one of the worst hooch tragedies in the state, 172 people died in South 24 Parganas district after consuming toxic liquor on December 13, 2011.
After the quantum of punishment was pronounced, prime accused Badshah expressed no emotion, but the other three broke down.
They later told reporters that they would move the high court.
Family members of those died in the hooch tragedy had demanded death penalty for the convicted persons, particularly Badshah.
The victims of the hooch tragedy were mostly masons, small farmers, labourers and hawkers. They started throwing up and collapsing after they consumed the illicit liquor from hooch dens in and around Sangrampur.
The deaths occurred due to methyl alcohol toxicity which led to respiratory and cardiac failure.