Spurious liquor kills seven more in Bihar's Saran district

New Delhi:  A week after 11 people died due to the consumption of spurious liquor in Bihar's Saran district, at least seven people have died in the last three days allegedly after consuming spurious liquor in the same district.

"Seven people have so far died in the Masudhi area since August 10. Villagers claim that the deceased consumed spurious liquor. The exact cause of death can only be ascertained after getting post-mortem examination reports, Superintendent of Police Santosh Kumar said.

Searches are being conducted to nab the suspected bootleggers, the SP said.

The incident of last week had happened in Phulwariya panchayat falling under Maker police station. The SHO of the police station and the local chowkidar has been suspended.

The sale and consumption of alcohol have been banned in Bihar since April 2016. However, since November last year, the state reported a number of hooch tragedies in which more than 60 people have died.

Growing problem

Just a week ago on 5 August, at least 11 people died and 17 lost eyesight due to hooch in the same Saran district. Before that on 25 May 16 people were reported to have died. There hasn't been any month so far in 2022 where a few such cases have not been reported. But, the problem started as soon as Bihar was declared a dry state.

Bihar was declared a dry state in April 2016. The problem of spurious liquor killing people started just a few months later in August 2016. In August of that year, 16 people died because of it.

Five years down the road, spurious liquor had claimed 125 deaths - till 2021. And 90 of these were reported in 2021 itself.

Most of these cases have taken place in border districts of Gopalganj, West Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Nawada, Siwan, Vaishali, Kaimur, Begusarai and Rohtas. These share borders with either the states of  Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand or Nepal.

With input from PTI

Also read:

Bihar: Spurious liquor claims three lives in Chhapra district, fourth such incident in six months

Hooch claims five lives in Bihar’s Chhapra district, fifth incident in six months

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