Fourteen persons died and 10 were hospitalised after allegedly consuming suspected spurious liquor in East Champaran district of Bihar on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday, police said. The 10 are undergoing treatment in government and private hospitals at Motihari, the district headquarters. The dead have been identified as Dhruv Paswan, Jokhu Singh, Manohar Rai, Dhruv Yadav, Abhishek Yadav, Tuntun Singh, Bhutan Manjhi, Sudish Ram, Indrasan Mahato, Ajay Paswan and Chhotelal Manjhi. Police confirmed the 14 deaths of which postmortem of only three — Ashok Paswan, Rameshwar Ram and Chhotu Paswan — could be done as the rest were cremated even before the police reached the spot. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said: “We are looking into the matter and proper investigation is being done.” Seven persons have so far been detained by the police as part of the investigation into the incident, a Bihar police headquarters statement said. Bihar Additional Director General of Police (headquarters) JS Gangear told The Indian Express: “Eleven were cremated even before their postmortem could be done”. The office of DSP (headquarters) said: “On April 14, we received information that some people had died under suspicious circumstances in Turkaulia, Harsiddhi, Sugauli and Paharpur blocks. Locals said the possible cause of death was spurious liquor.” Police and prohibition teams sent to the spot were told by locals that some people had arranged “raw liquor and consumed it and later some died. They also said that the last rites of some were already conducted while some are undergoing treatment in various hospitals.” Ritu Kumari, daughter of daily wager Ashok Paswan, alleged, “One of our neighbours took my father to a nearby farm where they consumed liquor. Soon he reported of uneasiness and died a few hours later.” The police, however, is yet to establish if the spurious liquor was manufactured locally or transported from Uttar Pradesh. Reacting to the deaths, BJP Rajya Sabha MP and former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi said, “It is quite possible that the state government would under-report hooch deaths again and attribute it to diarrhoea. It is very unfortunate that the state government does not have any SOP in place in cases of hooch tragedy despite Patna High Court and NHRC instructions". This is the second such case this year after 72 persons had died in Saran in January. An NHRC report, released recently, had blamed the state government for hiding the number of hooch deaths, putting it at only 42 and also for poor police response. CM Nitish Kumar had also faced flak for not considering compensation to the next of kin of Saran victims despite liquor law providing for it. The CM had then said, “those who drink would die”.
