Police arrest Swarna Bar owner in Vijayawada hooch tragedy case

Hyderabad, Dec 11: Vijayawada police today arrested the owner of Swarna Bar and Restaurant, Malladi Srinivas, following the death of five persons after drinking spurious liquor. At least another 29 persons were hospitalised in the incident. Police arrested Srinivas a day after the AP government formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT). The SIT had blamed Swarna Bar and Restaurant for the tragedy in its initial report, which was submitted by Prohibition and Excise commissioner M.K. Meena to chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu. The report said that adulteration of liquor took place in the bar itself and not at the breweries. It may be recalled that the bar manager, cashier, supervisors and workers were arrested on Tuesday. During interrogation, they had allegedly confessed that they had mixed some chemical in the liquor before serving it to the customers on the fateful day. Srinivas is a relative of former Vijayawada Central MLA Malladi Vishnu, who was included in the chargesheet as accused No 9.