In what should be a matter of serious concern for the dry state, bootlegger Harishankar Kahar, who was arrested by the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) of Ahmedabad police on Wednesday in connection with the hooch tragedy, has reportedly revealed that nearly 1,300 litres of the illicit liquor has already been supplied across the city.

Kahar alias Hari Om was arrested on charges of supplying hooch to localities where 95 people have so far died. He was likely to be produced before a local court late on Thursday.

Sources in the DCB said Kahar had confessed to have personally supplied 775 litres of hooch in the city. “He told us that the hooch was sourced from a prominent bootlegger in Mehmedabad in Kheda district. He had alone supplied 20 cans each of 30-litre capacity besides 175 litres of hooch to Odhav, Bapunagar, Rakhiyal and Amraiwadi areas in the city,” a DCB source said.

The DCB added another bootlegger, Arwind Solanki, who had supplied hooch to Majoor Gam and had died on the first day of the hooch tragedy, might have also sourced the brew from Mehmdabad.

Kahar has further told that 18 cans of the hooch consignment (about 540 litres) were taken to various liquor stalls in the city by one of his accomplices.

All this can have serious implications as spurious liquor distributed across the city could mean more deaths — with many feared unreported across the state

Kahar, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, has over 15 cases of prohibition registered against him. He has been arrested under PASA twice. Kahar was in judicial custody until February this year, when a city-court granted him bail. The 35-year-old Kahar used to work for another notorious bootlegger, Raju Thotia, who is at present lodged in a Rajkot jail.