Post-mortems of 16 more suspected hooch victims were conducted here in the last two days, raising their number to 87, but authorities on Wednesday kept the official death toll in tragedy pegged at 35.
The mortal remains of 29 people who died till Thursday were handed over to their relatives and the bodies were either buried or cremated, Kallakurichi District Collector Prasanth M S said.
Do the thought leaders and policy makers (and presumed enforcers) have the courage to decide which way to go? I do not think they have. But the farce should end one day.
In one of the worst hooch tragedies in West Bengal, 57 people, mostly labourers, rickshaw-pullers and hawkers, died and over hundred have been hospitalised in serious condition after consuming illicit liquor at Mograhat in South 24 Parganas district on Wednesday.
The victims, labourers of Salmira tea estate, fell ill after they drank the illicit brew on Thursday night, the police said.
The tragedy took a political hue with CM Yogi Adityanath suggesting the involvement of SP in 'such mischievous acts'.
With 13 more deaths, the toll in the hooch tragedy in several villages of Mubarakpur area of Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday climbed to 35 even as Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav took serious note of the incident and suspended five excise department officials.
The tragedy had struck the tea gardens of the twin districts of Golaghat and Jorhat after a large number of their workers consumed the spurious liquor on Thursday night.
Vinod Chauhan alias Dagri, the key accused in the hooch tragedy that has claimed over 130 lives in Gujarat, was on Friday arrested along with one of his aides. The two were arrested near Vadodara, said a senior police official. According to the police, Chauhan had supplied 1100 litres of spurious liquor, spiked with Methanol, to the city in the first week of July. The hooch was delivered to different parts of the city and its consumption led to the death of over 130 people.
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have been claiming that "more than 100 people" have died. Most media reports have put the death toll to be more than 50.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of using agencies like the CBI and Enforcement Directorate to threaten liquor licensees and excise officials but the BJP alleged that the AAP government's 'rushed' move was an 'admission of violations and corruption' and it was 'scared' of the CBI probe.
In a breakthrough into the worst-ever hooch tragedy in Mumbai that has so far claimed 102 lives and rendered over 40 people ill, police have tracked down and arrested one of the main suppliers of the killer brew in Delhi.
According to sources, Kavitha was to be made to sit face-to-face with Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai, who was arrested in connection with the liquor policy case on Monday night.
The toll due to consumption of spurious liquor in the Malad area of Mumbai climbed to 94 with the death of four more persons on Sunday.
A large number of labourers of two tea estates of Golaghat and Jorhat districts had fallen ill after drinking spurious liquor on Thursday night.
Former chief minister Tarun Gogoi demanded a CBI inquiry into the episode
Empty bottles of liquor were discovered inside the premises of the legislature in dry Bihar, in a fresh embarrassment to the Nitish Kumar government in the state, which has been drawing flak over recent hooch tragedies that have claimed more than 40 lives.
Ten persons died last night, while five succumbed to the spurious liquor on Tuesday.
Thirty four people belonging to Kallakurichi district have died following consumption of 'methanol mixed arrack', Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin said on Thursday.
Ironically, rival Tamil Nadu governments expend the most on social welfare schemes, especially targeting women and youth and children, but that money comes only by selling more liquor. There is always the specious plea, which has been peddled very many times in the past, that without licensed liquor, drinkers would go after hooch and there could be more hooch tragedies and hooch deaths. No one is convinced, but no one can dispute it either, comments N Sathiya Moorthy.
Defending the liquor ban in Bihar, he said that the state's prohibition policy has benefitted several people and a large number of people have given up drinking alcohol due to his measures.
After visiting those being treated at Villupuram government medical college hospital, Chief Minister MK Stalin told reporters Villupuram that investigation into the matter would be transferred to the CB-CID and he assured tough action.
The death toll in the Malad hooch tragedy on Saturday climbed to 84 even as the Excise department suspended four of its officials in connection with the incident.
Four persons were sentenced to life imprisonment and 15 others sent to jail for two years by a local court for supplying spurious liquor to a group of people as a result of which 87 people had died in a suburb here in 2004.
Wails of grief shook West Bengal's Sangrampur and neighbouring villages as the toll in the state's worst-ever illicit liquor tragedy shot up to 143 amid fears that this may rise further with over 100 victims including labourers, rickshaw-pullers and hawkers battling for life.
With 14 more persons succumbing to illness caused by spurious liquor, the death toll in Odisha hooch tragedy mounted to 19 today prompting the state government to order a judicial probe into the episode.
11 people died on Friday and some more were taken ill after allegedly consuming spurious liquor sold by a licensed vendor in Aligarh, a senior official said.
Kejriwal's new jobs promise comes days after he assured free electricity up to 300 units per month if voted to power in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state where polls are due by the year-end.
The ghastly hooch tragedy has struck Karnataka once again and this time it has claimed 86 lives. The deadliest tragedy occurred in Karnataka in 1981 in which 323 people lost their lives after consuming spurious liquor. There have been five such incidents, including this one, after the 1981 fiasco and ironically in none of the incidents, have the police managed to make any headway where the investigations are concerned.
The death toll in the hooch tragedy rose to 48 as 32 people died on Wednesday during treatment in various hospitals of Ahmedabad, the police said.
The latest deaths have been recorded in Samastipur district. Earlier, at least 33 people died in Gopalganj and West Champaran districts upon consuming spurious liquor.
The Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party unit on Monday expelled Rishi Sharma, the alleged kingpin in the hooch tragedy case, from the party and said he was not an active member.
The Patna high court has struck down the conviction of all 13 accused in the first major hooch tragedy that struck Bihar after the state went dry six years ago.
Licensed bars in major UP cities could earlier remain open up to 1 am, or 3 am if they were located in five-star hotels. Unlike before, hotels in small cities can also apply for a liquor licence.
Huma Qureshi's Rani Bharti was the ace in the pack, but everything that she does in this season smacks more of script conveniences than careful plotting, observes Deepa Gahlot.
An amendment bill is likely to be tabled in the next session of the assembly in February.
According to Santosh Kumar, the superintendent of police of Saran district, three persons each have died in Isuapur and Mashrak police station areas after allegedly consuming spurious liquor on Tuesday night.
'The chief minister has said on the floor of the House that he knows everything (about the criminal-politician mafia).' 'If you know about this nexus, why aren't you acting against them?' 'Ask him why is he so helpless.'
The toll in Mumbai's worst hooch tragedy rose to 102 on Monday with the death of five more victims who consumed spurious liquor in Malad area and another 46 are in hospitals with eight of them struggling to survive serious ill-effects of the killer brew.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances