Excise department officials on Saturday said multiple laboratory tests did not find any evidence of contamination in a particular brand of country liquor, the consumption of which allegedly led to the deaths of six persons in Burdwan since Thursday night.

On Saturday, sources at the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital said that two more persons who were admitted after drinking that brand’s country liquor succumbed. Family members of the deceased claimed they died after consuming country liquor. Police, however, refused to comment on these two deaths.

“After the reports of the deaths came, we collected samples of the same batch of the particular country liquor brand from different districts. We sent them to the laboratories for tests but there is no report of contamination. Now it is the duty of police to send the bottles of liquor consumed by the victims (those who died and those who are unwell) for forensic test to find out whether anything was mixed with alcohol,” said a senior excise department official in Calcutta.

Excise officials said that they collected the bottles of the same batch of alcohol to know whether all the produced liquor in the lot was somehow contaminated.

“The deaths had presented us with a new worry.... There were around three lakh bottles of liquor in the open market of that particular brand. If a bottle of a batch was found contaminated, other bottles would have been no different. If the test report proved contamination, more people across Bengal would have faced similar consequences after consuming liquor (of that particular brand),” the official added.

The alleged liquor deaths reported from Burdwan town since Thursday night. has triggered panic in the area.

Even before it could be confirmed what caused the deaths, police closed down all the shops selling country liquor in Burdwan town.

Police sources said they have already collected the samples of the bottles of the liquor consumed by the affected persons and sent them for forensic tests.

“We are not leaving any stone unturned to find out the actual reason of the deaths. Those who had died in the past two days consumed food and liquor in at least three different places,” a police officer said.

A source in the excise department said that in many cases unauthorised hotels or eateries purchased liquor in bulk and mixed it with other liquids — which may or may not be contaminated — for more profit.

“At most of the roadside eateries, they don’t sell sealed bottles of liquor. So, there is always the possibility of those eatery owners mixing some spurious liquor (with a branded one) to earn a good profit,” said a source.

After the Burdwan incident, the state government had directed all excise and police officials in the districts to trace the shops selling liquor illegally in their respective areas. The police have also been asked to root out dens selling hooch or spurious liquor.