At least two persons were killed, four others are in a critical condition and a few others lost their eyesight after allegedly consuming hooch in Saran district of Bihar on Tuesday.
The incident occurred at Ramdaspur village under Panapur police station, around 90km north from the state capital.
A group of people had consumed liquor on Monday night and fell ill subsequently. By morning, panic prevailed at the village as two were dead and several others suffered from symptoms like nausea, stomach ache, dizziness and loss of vision.
“Two persons have died in the hooch case. According to our information four others are ill, but are out of danger. We are investigating the matter. Nobody has been arrested so far,” Panapur station house officer (SHO) Vikas Kumar Singh told The Telegraph.
The deceased have been identified as Rohit Kumar, 27, and Mintu Sah, 30. One person who lost his eyesight has been identified as Sunil Kumar. All of them worked as masons.
“My husband went out on Monday evening. He came back late and said he had consumed two glasses (pegs) of liquor. He started vomiting at around 11pm. I cleaned the vomit. He died in a couple of hours,” deceased Sah’s wife Ramita Kumari told reporters.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar’s government implemented total prohibition in Bihar in April 2016, but a nexus of mafia, government officials, enforcement agencies and politicians comprised it completely.
Over six years after prohibition, the ground reality is that Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and country liquor are available all across the state, albeit at a higher price.
The mafia at times also passes off spurious liquor made with methyl alcohol, which causes hooch tragedies.
Over 117 people have lost their lives in hooch cases across Bihar this year. Around 227 persons have died in such incidents since January 2021.
The real toll in hooch cases seldom come forth because the administration focuses on suppressing them, the families of the victims are afraid of the police and the tough provisions of the prohibition act, and also do not want to hand over the dead bodies to the police for post-mortem.
