MAGRAHAT (SOUTH 24-PARGANAS ): The poison that has killed 171 people on Kolkata's southern fringes flowed like rivers on Tuesday as policemen and angry residents smashed bhattis and dumped the illegal liquor in dried-up ponds and canals. The don who ruled over this empire of death, Khora Badshah, is really a hunted man but is it really a wide open and shut case?
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Amid cries of conspiracy from Trinamool Congress leaders, it's not escaped the police's observe that Badshah's one-time mentor and today sworn rival, Selim Laskar, has additionally been missing because the day people started dropping dead in Sangrampur . Police suspect Laskar has a role within the tragedy. Over the past Ten years, Badshah had virtually completed Laskar's hooch business to wield absolute monopoly in Mograhat.
Badshah, aka Nurul Islam, was the last word in the region. Each day following the Mograhat police firing on December 1, Badshah was reportedly seen going to the victims' homes with Union minister Mukul Roy, asking people to maintain peace and order. It was his political leaning that helped him evade police, his neighbours say.
The hooch don - now Bengal's popular man - started like a biscuit vendor on local trains. It had been his ruthlessness and hunger for risk that earned him cult status within an area where crime is just one other way of life. He is feared, revered, thanked and abused simultaneously. The impoverished populace held him in awe while he "employed " a lot more than 500 people. Hundreds others were indirect partners in his fast expanding hooch trade.
Badshah managed to begin a stranglehold around the trade and spread its tentacles to the remotest areas, where hooch may be the only affordable drink. He turned it right into a cottage industry . It's prepared everywhere - in shacks along railway tracks, on village backyards as well as in storerooms, balance out on view.
This week, he pushed his luck too far, or his past swept up with him.
On Thursday evening, locals stormed his sprawling house at Mahitala, 2km from Mograhat station , and stripped it bare. Whatever could be broke was smashed to bits. Whatever might be carried - furniture to valuables as well as window frames - was taken away. Badshah had fled with his wife and two sons on Wednesday. So did the majority of his associates and 'employees' . Selim , too, is untraceable.
The mob ransacked his other business establishments - an eatery along with a cellphone shop at Mograhat station. "He is solely accountable for getting thousands hooked on hooch. It was readily available, almost everywhere in Mograhat, because of Badshah. His gang either brewed or supplied it just for 15-30 at just about any village. He alone is responsible for the death of these innocent people," said Aminul Ali, a resident of Mahitala.
About six months ago, Badshah ended up his brewing units in Mograhat after a police crackdown . He even allowed a school on one of his smashed distilleries. But he had extended his supply and distribution network so well it didn't affect his business. He soon started sourcing hooch from neighbouring Gocharan, leaving the local bosses Babu Ghosh, Bakhtar and Lalit Naskar to manage its production. "It ended up being more profitable for him. He has steadily committed to other businesses in Mograhat, that is an indication of his growing financial clout," said a neighbour.
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Trafficking, arms cases against Badshah
Hooch baron Khora Badshah yet others like Kalo Siraj and Pora Gopal were also involved with trafficking and gun-running . It has now come to light that an FIR was lodged against them and many others at the Baruipur police station (No. 1090) on December 6, 2010, through the father of the woman they had allegedly raped and trafficked to Mumbai but no steps were taken to bring them to book. Two RPF officers were also named in the FIR. P 2
Poison peddler
Khora Badshah is both a revered and hated estimate diamonds Harbour subdivision. His 'industry' gives livelihoods but snatches lives He supplies hooch to a lot more than 400 outlets in the Mograhat-Sangrampur belt, locals say. More than 40 of those are in and around Sangrampur station, the epicentre of the tragedy There is a theory that the aide of Selim Laskar, who mentored Badshah but was displaced by him as the area's hooch baron, infiltrated Badshah's group and mixed a lethal dose of methyl alcohol in the brew
Don supplied hooch to 400 outlets: Locals
Magrahat (South 24-Parganas ): Khora Badshah, the hooch don of Magrahat area, accustomed to supply the brew to more than 400 'outlets' within the Magrahat-Sangrampur belt, according to locals. More than 40 of these were around Sangrampur station alone.
His sprawling house sticks out in a village of rickety shacks. Neighbours describe him being an amiable, soft-spoken individual who rarely interacted with them. "He kept to himself. The three months which i have been here, I don't think I've come across him greater than a handful of times," said Mohammed Anwar, Badshah's tenant.
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There is a theory that one of Selim's henchmen infiltrated Badshah's group and mixed a lethal dose of methyl alcohol in the brew. Others say Badshah turned greedy and was ready to do anything for money. "To start with, he would be a scrupulous man. But he lost his scruples since he started hobnobbing with political leaders. He is the most hated man in South 24-Parganas now," said Asghar, a resident of Gocharan.
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