The count in the hooch tragedies in Villupuram and Chengalpet districts rose to 20. (Representational)
The count in the twin hooch tragedies in Villupuram and Chengalpet districts rose to 20 on Tuesday.
According to the police, the two separate incidents of spurious liquor deaths were reported in the north zone of Tamil Nadu.
13 deaths have been reported in Villupuram and 7 in Chengalpattu, the police said.
In this connection, a man identified as Amaran has been arrested and spurious liquor seized from his possession has been sent to the lab to ascertain the presence of methanol in it, police said.
On Sunday chief minister Stalin announced Rs 10 lakh to each of the families of those who died and also announced a compensation of Rs 50,000 each to those hospitalised.
He also directed the authorities concerned to give special treatment to those who are hospitalised in this incident. He also said that the government is taking strict measures to curb illicit liquor and narcotics.
"As per the forensic report, it was found that those alcohols not for human consumption and those are industry usable methanol poisonous alcohol," DGP Sylendra Babu said on Tuesday.
The spurious liquor seized from Ekkiyarkuppam Village of Marakkanam, Villupuram districts, was sent for forensics
"In the Villupuram incident, Amaran was arrested. Investigating him, it was found that he brought the spurious liquor from Muthu and Muthu said he brought it from Pondicherry Elumazlai," he further said.
The DGP said that the spurious liquor that caused the tragedy in both districts was brought from the same place and the same person.
"Similarly, Ammavasai has been arrested who sold spurious liquor in Chithamoor, Perunkaranai and Perambakkam. Ammavasai also took those spurious liquor and got treatment at the hospital. During the interrogation, he said that he brought spurious liquor from Velu and his brother Chandhiran. Meanwhile, when they were inquired they said that they brought liquor from Panayur- Rajesh and he said that he brought spurious liquor from Vilampur Viji. Vilambur Viji said spurious liquor was brought from Pondicherry," he added.
Earlier, the police had said that there was no evidence found of a link between the two incidents.
He also said that in the year 2022 - 1,40,649 cases have been registered in connection with Spurious Liquor and 1,39,697 accused have been arrested.
"37,217 litres of spurious liquor has been seized and 2,957 vehicles have been seized which was used for smuggling spurious liquor," he added.
Likewise, according to the official, this year 2023, 55,414 cases have been registered and 55,173 accused have been arrested in connection with Spurious Liquor.
"So far 2,55,078 spurious liquor has been seized. 69 vehicles have been seized which were used for smuggling spurious liquor. 79 accused have been arrested under Gundas act," the official said.
"As in Tamil Nadu, production of spurious liquor has been controlled a lot and smuggling from other states is also being monitored, in the situation one can't find spurious liquor few stole poisonous spurious liquor from industries and sold that. Because of that this untoward incident has happened. From which industry the poisonous spurious liquor came and links to that are under investigation," the DGP said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)