At least 130 people have died and more than 200 are being treated in hospital after drinking toxic bootleg alcohol in north-eastern India, officials said. Some 35 people were reported dead in the state of Assam on Sunday, days after about 100 people died in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Ten people have been arrested over the bootleg drink, a police official said. There were many women among the victims, who all worked on tea plantations.
An inquiry has been ordered into the tragedy. The death toll is believed to be the highest since a 2011 case in West Bengal, where more than 170 people died after ingesting bootleg alcohol.
The first victims died on Thursday, according to the administrator of the Golaghat district in Assam, Dhiren Hazarika.
Golaghat district Superintendent of Police Pushkar Singh told the BBC Hindi service that police had found the home where the toxic liquor was made and had recovered one and a half litres (2.5pts) of it.
Doctors at the hospitals where the victims were being treated were baffled by the ingredients used in the illegal alcohol, which has caused organ failure. An expert team from the city of Guwahati is being brought in analyse the contents of the drink
Deaths from illegally produced alcohol, which is much cheaper than branded spirits, are common in parts of rural India. Bootleggers often add methanol - a highly toxic form of alcohol sometimes used as an anti-freeze - to their mixture to increase its strength.
If ingested in even small quantities, methanol can cause blindness, liver damage and death.
State police said two excise department officials were suspended for failing to take adequate precautions over the sale of the alcohol.
Source: BBC
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