India bootleg alcohol death toll rises to 98 as families mourn

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NEW DELHI, Aug 2, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The death toll from a toxic
bootleg alcohol scandal in the north Indian state of Punjab rose to 98
Sunday, officials and reports said.

Police have arrested 25 people so far over the worsening tragedy,
which starting coming to light late last week, the Press Trust of
India news agency said.

Hundreds of people die every year in India from illegal alcohol made
in backstreet distilleries which sells for as little as 10 rupees (13
US cents) a litre, affordable for even the poorest.

The death toll from the illicit booze had risen to 75 in Punjab’s
Tarn Taran district after further investigation, the local
administration’s deputy commissioner Kulwant Singh said.

“Several families refused to divulge details of deaths and a few
even cremated them. We have come to this number after information
gathering,” Singh told AFP Sunday.

A further 11 people had died in Gurdaspur district, a local official
told AFP. PTI reported Saturday that toxic moonshine had also killed
12 in Amritsar.

Relatives of the victims mourned on Sunday as the state opposition
party called on the Punjab government to “curb liquor mafia in the
state” in a series of tweets.

Punjab state chief minister Amarinder Singh said Friday he had
ordered a special inquiry into the deaths and “anyone found guilty
will not be spared”.

In a separate incident, authorities in the southern state of Andhra
Pradesh said on Friday that nine people had died after drinking
alcohol-based sanitiser.

Of the estimated five billion litres of alcohol drunk every year in
India, around 40 percent is illegally produced, according to the
International Spirits and Wine Association of India.

Deaths are frequently reported, with bootleggers often found adding
methanol — a highly toxic form of alcohol sometimes used as an
anti-freeze — in their brews to increase its strength.

If ingested, methanol can cause blindness, liver damage and death in
larger concentrations.

In 2015, more than 100 people died in a Mumbai slum died after
drinking illegal moonshine.