Illegal alcohol kills over 100 in India
A toxic batch of bootleg liquor has killed at least 100 people and put scores more in hospital in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Day labourers and other poor workers in a number of villages near West Bengal’s capital Kolkata, fell severely ill on Tuesday evening after drinking the cheap liquor from several illegal shops.
Over 100 people are in a critical condition in hospital, with many being treated on the floor due to lack of beds.
Four breweries were ransacked after the deaths began to be reported, AFP quoted officials as saying.
Police have arrested four people and closed 10 shops in connection with making and distributing the illegal desi daroo, a methanol-spiked liquid which is also used as fuel, solvent and anti-freeze.
“I had purchased two half-litre pouches for 10 rupees while returning home last evening and drank the liquor before dinner. After midnight I felt a pain in my throat. Then I started vomiting,” Julfikar Saddar, 35, told the Calcutta Telegraph newspaper from his hospital bed.
The drink, which can lead to fits and vomiting, costs as little as 10 rupees (25p). A manual labourer in India usually earns around 150 rupees (£1.95) for a day’s work. The drink is often sold door-to-door by salesmen on bicycles.
The liquor is packed in cans and delivered all over the district and other parts of the state in buses and on trains. Retailers sell sachets after filling them up with the liquor.
Toxic alcohol deaths are a regular occurrence in India. In 2009, 130 people were killed by illegally produced alcohol in a similar incident in the western state of Gujarat.
Last week, the state of Gujarat brought in a new law making the illegal manufacture and sale of toxic alcohol there punishable by death.
The alcohol poisoning comes just days after a hospital fire killed 93 people in Kolkata.
