HOWRAH: Seven people from Howrah's Ghusuri, who had consumed liquor on Sunday night, died on Wednesday morning, prompting locals to ransack the outlet and beat up the owner before handing him over to the cops. It is not clear yet whether whatever they had drunk was hooch (which is illicit), or country liquor laced with harmful chemicals.
Preliminary autopsy reports do not suggest any sort of alcohol poisoning, said cops, who have registered a case of "unnatural deaths". The excise department said it was quite possible that the liquor was cut with harmful chemicals.
The excise department has sent the liquor samples for forensic examination. A team of their officials, who are probing the incident, visited the spot on Wednesday to collect samples.
"We have not found any illicit material in the batch of liquor that was consumed," said an official. "Like the recent Burdwan incident a week ago, in which eight people had died after consuming liquor, some chemicals might have been laced with it. We have noticed a trend of using various chemical ingredients with hooch since the beginning of the pandemic," he added.
As tension prevailed in the area throughout the day, locals alleged police inaction. Howrah police commissioner Praveen Tripathi, too, said the preliminary autopsy reports had not "traced any alcohol" and that viscera samples had been sent for further forensic examination. Again, he, too, said that "some contamination" might have caused the deaths.
Deaths due to overdose of alcohol and comorbid factors: Hospital
Bina Srivastav, who lost her husband Binay Srivastav (34), said her husband died on Wednesday morning of the liquor. "He used to work as a security guard at a shopping mall and was a healthy person. He was a regular visitor to the local liquor den. On Sunday, too, he had dropped in there, and returned late at night. From early Wednesday, he had severe abdominal pain, vomiting and headache. When he was ferried to hospital, he was pronounced dead. We have two children; who will take care of us?" she said.
Hospital sources said the deaths were due to "the fragile health of the victims and an overdose of alcohol, along with comorbid factors like tuberculosis". The victims' families, however, refused to accept this theory. In December 2011, over 170 people had died at Sangrampur in South 24 Parganas after consuming hooch and an Alipore court had sentenced Khora Badshah, who used to run the hooch den, to life in prison. CM Mamata Banerjee had then provided compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the bereaved families.
