Five people, including two women, died on Wednesday night after consuming spurious liquor in Aligarh days after another hooch tragedy killed at least 87 in the district.

The five deceased, who used to work in a brick kiln in Jawan area, are residents of Jehanabad and Gaya districts in Bihar.

“Some people came to Rohera village in a truck on Wednesday evening and threw hundreds of liquor pouches and bottles near a canal. There were some brick kiln workers from Bihar who were living near the canal. They picked up the pouches and bottles and drank the liquor,” said Ranjit Singh, sub-divisional magistrate of the area.

Singh said that around 10pm on Wednesday, he came to know that some people had taken ill after consuming the liquor.

“A woman was already dead when we reached Rohera. There were 22 people who complained of vomiting, nausea and blindness. We admitted them to different hospitals in Aligarh city where four more died after a few hours. Currently, there are 18 people under treatment. The majority of them are on dialysis,” he added.

The deceased have been identified as Usha Devi and Chotelal Singh from Jehananbad and Sharda Devi, Suresh Kumar and Kailash Kumar from Gaya.

The death toll in the previous hooch tragedy in Aligarh’s Gonda-Lodha area reached 87 on Thursday.

On May 29, the villagers had alleged that some local people involved in the manufacturing and sale of hooch had distributed it to them free of cost the previous evening.

“In the previous incident, we have performed the post-mortem of 87 people till date. The autopsy of the new bodies would also be done,” said Dr B.D. Kalyani, chief medical officer of Aligarh district. He said 29 victims of the previous incident were still under treatment.

Kalanidhi Naithani, senior superintendent of police, said: “We are trying to identify the people who brought the liquor in the truck to Rohera village. In the previous case, we have arrested 35 people till date. We will also start the process of confiscating their properties.”

Chandra Bhushan Singh, district magistrate of Aligarh, said: “Out of the arrested accused in the previous case, seven are hooch mafias. We have decided to ban the sale of country liquor in bottles and pouches except tetra packs.”

The DM said it was easy for the criminals to manufacture bottles and wrappers or fill illegal liquor in empty bottles collected from model shops.

No arrest has been made in the latest case so far.