Sagar hooch tragedy: Two more key accused held after encounter; 39 arrested so far

Two prime accused in the hooch tragedy that has claimed 20 lives so far in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district were held after a brief encounter on Wednesday (September 23, 2026), officers said. 

According to the police, Manish Lodhi alias Yashwant Thakur and his accomplice Ashish Sahu were held after a brief encounter around 3 a.m. near Malthone area, about 50 kilometres from the district headquarters. Lodhi suffered a bullet injury in his leg in the encounter. 

With Lodhi and Sahu, the total number of accused arrested in the case has reached 39. The police have named 52 people in two separate cases filed in the wake of the tragedy in villages across Sagar’s Banda and Shahgarh sub-divisions.  

Sagar Superintendent of Police (SP) Anurag Sujania said that the police had received inputs on Tuesday night (September 22) that Lodhi had entered the district through Malthone area to seek help from some acquaintance of his. 

“The police acted on the inputs and surrounded him at a location. He was told to surrender, but he started firing at the police team. The police fired in self-defence and he was injured in his leg after which Ashish Sahu and he were taken into custody,” he said. 

Lodhi, one of the main accused in the case, had been absconding since September 6, when the tragedy came to light. The police have dubbed him as one of the main faces of a counterfeit liquor racket that was recently uncovered. 

Lodhi owned a government-licensed liquor shop in Banda’s Barethi village and allegedly used it to supply illegal and counterfeit liquor in the area. He is also accused of having conspired to manufacture counterfeit liquor, that is believed to have caused the deaths due to its high methyl alcohol content, with other key accused men. 

Additional SP Narendra Singh Solanki told The Hindu that Lodhi had been hiding in different states since the tragedy, including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. 

“We had been constantly tracing him. After initially hiding in M.P.’s Maihar, he went to U.P. and was in Lalitpur for a few days. From there, he went to Rajasthan’s Chittorgarh and Udaipur and entered Gujarat from there,” the officer said. 

Mr. Solanki said that Lodhi has a criminal record of 11 cases against him since 2010, including at least six under the Excise Act for alleged liquor smuggling and holding large amount of illegal liquor. 

Earlier, on September 22, the Madhya Pradesh High Court disposed of a petition in the matter, noting that the State Government had already ordered a judicial probe in the case. 

The State Government also submitted before the court an official death toll of 20 people in the tragedy, even as coal reports continue to peg the number above 35.