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Journalism of Courage
At the women’s ward of the Civil Hospital in Golaghat, Assam, which has treated more than 100 people who fell ill after drinking spurious countrymade liquor over the last three days, Rita Pujhar (50), a tea garden worker, sat clutching her abdomen on Saturday afternoon.
Like Rita, every patient has a tale about a “small gathering” and “a little bit of drinking”.
Sitting next to his mother Basanti Ghatowar (50), Vicky Ghatowar (25) wept. “We had relatives at home. I suspect my mother bought the drink from a couple in the village named Debaru and Sunita Pujhar. Today, I learnt both are dead,” he said.
While hospital records show both names as among those dead, it is still to be investigated whether they were sellers.
In the residential quarters of the workers of Halmira Tea Estate, in Golaghat, there is a sense of grief and disbelief – of the 98 people killed after allegedly drinking spurious liquor in Golaghat and Jorhat districts, at least 38 worked at Halimara Tea Estate.
Relatives of the victims – both the dead and those in hospital – said that drinking countrymade liquor, or ‘sulai’, is a common phenomenon for them but the village had never seen anything like this. Even as the police crack down on alleged producers and distributors of spurious liquor, they wait for an answer on how the common drink turned poisonous.
Police officials said Halmira’s Dhraupadi Urang (62) and her son Sanju (28) – both dead – were known to sell country liquor in the village. The liquor they sold, and drank, that night took their lives as well, the police said, but Pompi, Sanju’s partner, denied any knowledge and said probably others, too, were involved in selling it.
Dhraupadi and her friends Angni Gowala (60), Bondhoin Bowri (54) and Belo Bhumij (62) were the first four casualties of the tragedy. The police suspect they drank together, or from the same lot of liquor, on Wednesday night.
According to villagers, Sanju earned about Rs 400 per week working in the tea garden and tried to earn extra by selling alcohol. The police said five litres of ‘sulai’ can be bought for anything between Rs 350 and Rs 450.
Angni’s husband Lalu Gowala said, “The four women were friends. They often went to work outside the tea garden together. In the evenings, on most days, they used to drink together. There was something poisonous in the drink that evening.”
Karma Urang (50), who had consumed liquor on Thursday night, complained of headache the next morning and died the same night at Jorhat Medical College and Hospital, his family said. “He used to drink almost every day. We do not know what went wrong that day,” Karma’s wife Ongni said.
