22 Dead In Yet Another Toxic Liquor Tragedy In UP, 5 Officials Suspended

In yet another tragedy linked to spurious liquor in Uttar Pradesh, 22 people have died in the state's Aligarh district since Friday morning. The fatalities may rise further since more bodies are at the postmortem house awaiting an autopsy, said an official.

"According to figures available to us, 22 people have died after consuming illegal liquor. I have confirmed the figure from the medical officer. We are, however, still awaiting the official reports on this," said CB Singh, Aligarh district magistrate.

Visuals from the postmortem house showed policemen bringing in bodies this morning in white and black colored bags. Many bodies were also seen on stretchers outside the room where autopsies were performed

The victims had bought the spurious country-made liquor from a government licensed shop that serves three villages in the district, local officials said. Five officials, including the district excise official, have been suspended over the deaths.

The police have so far arrested five accused in the case while two main accused, who reportedly supplied and sold the liquor from the government-licensed shop are still on the run.

" We have arrested 6 people in all. three different FIRs have been registered against them . Two accused are still missing, we have announced a reward of 50,000 rupees each on them. From the arrested accused, we have found registers , booklets, bank account details , bottles of liquor, caps and bar codes," Kalanidhi Naithani, Aligarh's police chief said in a statement.

A relative, who lost his brother in the tragedy, blamed the local administration for the deaths. "There is so much negligence, there are so many bodies lying around here at the postmortem house and many more have already been cremated . The administration is lying about the casualty count . No one has come to check on us."

Incidents of death due to spurious liquor consumption have been reported from Uttar Pradesh in alarming frequency. Earlier on Tuesday, the police in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras district had arrested 85 people and seized 1,700 litres of illicit liquor during an anti-hooch campaign - "Operation Prahaar".

''Operation Prahaar'' was launched after several died and another half a dozen fell ill allegedly after consuming spurious liquor in Hathras in April.