In India 34 people were killed while 100 others rushed to hospital, due to a batch of toxic illegal alcohol, Tamil Nadu state officials told Punch reporters on Thursday.
The deadly mixture is made of locally brewed arrack drink laced with poisonous methanol, chief minister M.K. Stalin said, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Stalin said arrests had been made over the deaths and warned such crimes “ruin society and will be suppressed with an iron fist,” according to a statement from his office.
India records deaths every year due to the cheap alcohol made at backstreet distilleries.
In order to increase its potency the liquor is often spiked with methanol which can cause blindness, liver damage, and can as well lead to death.
In the Tamil Nadu case, more than 100 people were hospitalised according to M.S. Prasanth, a top government official in the state’s Kallakurichi district, quoted by Indian media.
The State Governor R.N. Ravi was “deeply shocked” at the deaths, adding that “many more victims are in serious condition battling for (their) lives”, writing on social media platform X.
Tamil Nadu is not a dry state, but liquor traded on the black market comes at a lower price than alcohol sold legally.
Selling and consuming liquor is prohibited in several other parts of India, further driving the thriving black market for potent and sometimes lethal backstreet moonshine.
Last year, a total of 27 deaths were recorded due to poisonous alcohol in one sitting in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, while in 2022, at least 42 people died in Gujarat.
