NEW DELHI, May 14 (NNN-PTI) – At least 21 people died and 10 others were hospitalised, after consuming spurious liquor in the northern Indian state of Punjab, police said.
According to police, nine people, including the supplier and alleged kingpin, have been detained in connection with the sale of spurious liquor and the deaths it caused.
The local government has suspended four officers for dereliction of duty, and departmental inquiries have been initiated against the delinquents.
A senior police officer said, the detained had procured methanol online and then diluted it before giving it to the distributors, who later sold the tainted drink in packets to the gullible people.
Medical teams were deployed in the affected villages, and went door to door, to check on people and educate them to go to the hospital for treatment, in case they had consumed the spurious liquor.
Preliminary investigations revealed the victims took liquor from a single source on Sunday evening, and the first deaths were reported on Monday.
In 2020, spurious liquor killed over 120 people in the state. Spurious alcohol deaths are often reported in India, where people usually drink cheap country-made bootleg liquor.– NNN-PTI
