Tikamgarh (MP) | Furious over the Sagar hooch tragedy that has claimed 16 lives, an angry mob led by women ransacked a licensed liquor shop in Madhya Pradesh's Tikamgarh district, smashing stock worth Rs 25 lakh, an official said on Monday.

Shouting anti-alcohol slogans and demanding accountability for bereaved families, the protesters stormed the outlet in Bamhori village on Sunday.

The incident occurred in Bamhori under the Jatara subdivision, around 35 km from the district headquarters, District Excise Officer Naresh Pratap Singh told PTI.

The mob targeted an outlet operated by Maa Gaholi Wines, destroying large quantities of country-made and Indian-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) worth Rs 25 lakh, he said.

Tikamgarh and Sagar are among the districts in the economically backward Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, which borders Uttar Pradesh.

The excise officer alleged that the Bamhori village sarpanch used the Sagar tragedy to create an atmosphere against the liquor shop and mobilised people in an attempt to strengthen his local political influence.

A police personnel posted at the Bamhori beat under Digoda police station said the shop salesman had submitted an application seeking a first information report (FIR) against unidentified people.

No case had been registered till the time of filing this report.

The police have arrested 19 people, some of them after a brief encounter, in the Sagar hooch tragedy case. Police have claimed that a suspected gang from Lalitpur in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh was linked to the manufacture and supply of the spurious liquor that claimed 16 lives.