At least 42 people have died in western India and nearly 100 others have been hospitalized since Monday, victims of smuggled alcohol, police said on Thursday (July 28).
Senior police officials from Gujarat state’s Botad and Ahmedabad districts said at least 42 people had died after drinking adulterated alcohol.
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In half a dozen villages
“31 people died after consuming adulterated alcohol in Botad. About 50 others were hospitalized in neighboring Bhavnagar district,” Ashok Yadav, inspector general of police for Bhavnagar district, told AFP. And Ahmedabad district recorded 11 deaths according to the inspector general of that district V. Chandrasekar. Gujarat, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi hails from, is a state where the consumption and sale of alcohol is prohibited by law. Residents in half a dozen villages drank the alcohol supplied by a local trafficker on Sunday, according to Ashok Yadav.
“Investigations revealed that the victims had consumed industrial methanol, which resulted in their deaths,” Interior Minister Harsh Sanghavi said in a statement. According to Harsh Sanghavi, 97 people have been hospitalized for treatment, two of whom are in critical condition. State police have cracked down on clandestine liquor factories across Gujarat and arrested several people, state police chief Ashish Bhatia said on Wednesday. Hundreds of people die every year in India, victims of alcohol produced in clandestine distilleries.
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Of the roughly five billion liters of alcohol the country consumes each year, about 40% is clandestinely produced, according to the International Spirits and Wine Association of India. Alcohol is often altered with methanol to increase its potency. If ingested, methanol can cause blindness, liver damage, and death. Last year, 98 people died after drinking illegal alcohol in the northern state of Punjab. And in 2019, about 150 people died from alcohol poisoning in the northeastern state of Assam, most of them working on tea plantations.
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