18 die after consuming spurious liquor in Bihar

Patna, Nov 4 (IANS) A total of 18 persons died in Bihar after consuming spurious liquor -- 10 in Gopalganj and 8 in West Champaran's Bettiah district.

Dr Nawal Kishore Chaudhary, the district magistrate of Gopalganj confirmed 10 deaths in three villages -- Mohammadpur, Kushar and Tuhra Tola under Mohammadpur police station. They consumed liquor on Tuesday evening and fell ill. They died in the last two days while 7 others are critically ill. Four of them lost their eyesight.

"We have been announcing through loudspeakers to come forward if they consumed liquor. The timely treatment can help save lives," Chaudhary said.

In Bettiah, the district administration confirmed 8 deaths due to consumption of spurious liquor.

Following mass deaths in Bihar due to consumption of illicit liquor, the opposition RJD mounted a scathing attack on the Nitish Kumar government.

"Is the Nitish Kumar government not responsible for mass deaths?" Bihar opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav said.

"The Nitish Kumar government is hiding the number of deaths. As per our information, 20 persons died in Gopalganj, 13 in Bettiah and 10 in Muzaffarpur district a week ago. The district administration is cremating dead bodies without any postmortem to hide facts," Tejashwi said.

"During bypolls, the JDU leaders had distributed liquor to voters with the connivance of Nitish Kumar. It also reached to other districts too. Therefore Nitish Kumar is directly responsible for mass deaths due to consumption of spurious liquor. He is claiming a liquor ban in the state which has completely failed," Tejashwi Yadav said.

"The liquor mafias are running a parallel economy to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore in the state. Nitish Kumar is the kingpin of it. He should clarify before the people of the state," Tejashwi said.

"The Nitish-BJP government has broken the back of people through high prices of commodities and other items and now 50 persons have died due to spurious liquor in the last one week in Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj and West Champaran districts. Despite that, Nitish Kumar had not said a single word to console family members of the victims," Lalu Prasad tweeted.

Meanwhile, Patna police managed to seize a huge cache of liquor worth Rs 50 lakh from Patna city area on Thursday.