When young IAS officer Sanjay Kothari then SDM Narwana saved lives of hundreds during Narwana hooch tragedy

Gustakhi Maaf Haryana – Pawan Kumar Bansal

When young I.A.S. officer Sanjay Kothari saved the lives of hundreds.

During my five decades stint as a journalist with the Indian Express Group of newspapers and other newspapers in Haryana, I had seen very good and bad officers—corrupt and honest, dedicated to their duty and some totally surrendered before power. The hero of today’s story is Sanjay Kothari, an I.A.S. officer of the Haryana cadre, and ex Chief Vigilance Commission Chief Vigilance Commissioner.

Sanjay was posted as S.D.M. of Narwana in Jind district of Haryana, and I was a reporter of the Indian Express at Jind. Bhajan Lal was the Chief Minister, and illicit liquor trade was flourishing under political and police patronage. Forty people had died and several were blinded after consuming spurious liquor purchased from government-authorized liquor vends. People from neighboring villages had purchased large quantities of liquor.

Sanjay Kothari got all the vends sealed and ensured announcements in villages warning people not to consume liquor purchased from the vends a few days earlier. He also asked the D.S.P., Narwana, to conduct raids and arrest the liquor contractors. But the D.S.P. rang the liquor contractors and told them that Sanjay Kothari was a very strict officer and they were going to raid their premises. On this information, the liquor contractor ran away after destroying the remaining stock of hooch.

At that time, the leading English magazine Caravan had reported that despite repeated threats, Pawan Kumar Bansal, a young reporter of the Indian Express, got the news of the D.S.P. helping the liquor mafia published in his paper. The matter was raised in Parliament, and the D.S.P. was suspended following a dressing down of the Chief Minister by the Prime Minister.

Shockingly, when this reporter had asked a senior cop whether liquor racketeers could be arrested under the National Security Act, he replied that they were not intentionally playing with people’s lives, adding that it was sheer bad luck of the contractors and those who died that the tragedy occurred.

While Sanjay had said that how could he allow people to be victimized.

A diary recovered during the raid had the names of top cops, politicians, and excise officers who were getting bribes from liquor contractors. The diary was burnt by a top cop.

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