Two men died after consuming liquor at a licensed bar near a Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) outlet in Thanjavur on Sunday. Thanjavur Collector Dinesh Ponraj Oliver told journalists that cyanide poisoning was suspected.
The latest deaths come on the heels of multiple casualties in two spurious liquor tragedies in Villupuram and Chengalpattu districts. Mr. Oliver said, “The Viscera Report revealed that there were no traces of methyl alcohol in the liquor they had consumed, but the presence of cyanide was detected.”
Thanjavur Superintendent of Police Ashish Rawat, who was with the Collector, said the police had taken three persons, including the owner of the bar, into custody to record their statements and the matter would be investigated further.
The police said in the morning, Kuppusamy, 68, a daily wage labourer at a temporary fish market, and Vivek, 36, a car driver, bought the liquor at the Tasmac outlet on South East Rampart Road. Moments after consuming it, they fainted. They were rushed to the Government Thanjavur Medical College and Hospital. While Kuppusamy died on the way, Vivek died a couple of hours later at the hospital, the police said.
A senior police officer told The Hindu, “Since the two victims did not belong to one family, there is no information that they consumed the liquor together. Investigators are probing how both of them were given a drink laced with cyanide.”
Mr. Rawat said a case had been registered initially at the Thanjavur East police station under the Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Special teams formed
Police sources said three to four special teams had been constituted to probe the case. The liquor bottles from the bar have been seized. Following the incident, Revenue Department officials sealed the bar. Mr. Oliver also inspected the liquor outlet.
The latest deaths occurred days after police teams cracked down on illicit arrack and bootleggers in Thanjavur and other districts in the central zone. The raids, which lasted three days, had led to the booking of 149 cases in the district alone.
