The spurious liquor, that claimed the lives of 20 people in Punjab's Sangrur district, has been detected as 'Methanol' - a fatal chemical used in industrial products, a police officer said on Sunday.

The lethal substance was procured by the accused persons from a Noida-based factory meant for factory use, said Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Law and Order Gurinder Singh Dhillon, who is heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case.

The ADGP, accompanied by SSP Sangrur cum SIT member Sartaj Singh Chahal, addressed a media meet at the Punjab Police Headquarters here, and said the two masterminds - Gurlal Singh of village Ubhawal in Sangrur and Harmanpreet Singh of village Taipur in Patiala - have been arrested along with six other accused persons.

The police have fired three separate FIRs at police stations Dirba, Sunam and Cheema. Both masterminds have criminal history and they became known to each other while at Sangrur Jail, the ADGP said.

Other Six arrested accused persons have been identified as Manpreet Singh alias Mani and Sukhwinder Singh alias Sukhi, both of village Gujjran in Dirba; Soma Kaur, Rahul alias Sanju and Pardeep Singh alias Babi, all of Chauwas in Cheema; Arshdeep Singh alias Arsh of village Rogla.

Police teams have also recovered 200 litres of Methanol chemicals, empty liquor bottles, bottle caps and other equipment used for manufacturing and labelling spurious liquor from the accused persons.

He said the masterminds were using a local contact Manpreet Singh alias Mani to sell the spurious liquor.

“The accused was targeting labourer class people to sell the spurious liquor at Half price,” he added.

He said the police have papers regarding the procurement of the fatal chemical and have added Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to investigate the role of factories from where they procured the Methanol.

The accused persons had procured a total of 300 liters of Methanol chemical.

He also said the police have also invoked the stringent section 61-A of the Excise Act in all three FIRs. Section 61-A is punishable with imprisonment for life/ the death penalty, he added.

He assured that the SIT will meticulously probe the case from all angles to take the investigation to the logical conclusion and a challan will be produced in the Court in a timely manner.

Meanwhile, the SIT head appealed to residents of affected as well as nearby villages to refrain from consuming liquor purchased from unauthorised sources.

(With UNI inputs)