A man arrives at hospital after suffering health problems due to consuming bootleg liquor
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)At least 21 people have died after consuming spiked drinks in a part of India where alcohol is banned.
Thirty others have become ill in the incident in the Ahmedabad and Botad districts of Gujarat state, where the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcohol is prohibited.
News agency Press Trust of India said police have detained several suspected bootleggers who were involved in selling the spiked alcohol.
Deaths from illegally brewed alcohol are common in India, where illicit liquor is cheap and often spiked with chemicals such as pesticides to increase potency.
Illicit liquor has also become a hugely profitable industry across India where bootleggers pay no taxes and sell enormous quantities of their product to the poor at a cheap rate.
In 2020, at least 120 people died after drinking spiked alcohol in India's northern Punjab state.
The western state of Gujarat is the only Indian province with a potential death penalty for the manufacture and sale of homemade liquor.
Alcohol is allowed to be consumed by foreign tourists who can apply for a permit online, while there are 35 registered shops that can sell booze to those with correct documentation.
Prohibition was advocated by Mahatma Gandhi and the law has led to a decrease in violence against women in the states it is practised. The Bihar, Mizoram, and Nagaland states also ban the production, sale and consumption of alcohol. Other states have repealed prohibition but observe ‘dry days’ when drinking is banned, usually during major and religious festivals.
