At least three persons died allegedly after consuming spurious liquor in Bihar’s Vaishali district on Sunday, barely a month after over 50 people died after taking hooch at several places in the dry state.
Sunday’s incident occurred at three villages — Mahathi, Padmaul and Thakauri — under Tisiauta police station. The deaths have once again put a question mark on prohibition imposed by chief minister Nitish Kumar.
Local villagers claimed that a few others have been admitted to private hospitals following complaints of nausea, chest pain, dizziness and difficulty in breathing.
Although the incident came to light in the morning, local police personnel, including the Tisiauta station house officer (SHO), denied link with hooch through the day.
However, family members of the deceased — Arvind Singh, Manoj Singh and Arjun Jha — told journalists they had consumed liquor on Saturday.
Arjun’s sister-in-law Archana Jha said: “He had come home after consuming liquor on Saturday night and started vomiting after a couple of hours. We had planned to take him to hospital in the morning but he died before that.”
The district administration sent its officials to the affected area after the news about the deaths spread.
“We have sent a team to Tisiauta after coming to know about the incident. It is camping there,” Vaishali district magistrate Udita Singh said.
Vaishali superintendent of police Maneesh said he would “neither confirm nor deny” the hooch claims.
“The sub-divisional police officer and the sub-divisional officer have gone to the place where the deaths have occurred. Three people have died at different places at different times. The bodies have been cremated, so we cannot conduct a post-mortem,” Maneesh said.
“We have recorded the statements of their family members. Our officers are talking to people in the area to get to the truth of the matter. We are waiting for their report,” the SP added.
The latest incident stands out more because Nitish had only recently ordered a crackdown on the liquor mafia, and has been pushing the administration across the state to strictly enforce prohibition following the back-to-back hooch tragedies last month in which over 50 lives were lost.
Around 100 people have died in Bihar this year after consuming illicit liquor.
Last week, empty liquor bottles and tetra packs had been found on the Assembly premises.