Spurious liquor claims 5 lives in Assam

Tinsukia (Assam):  Five persons died and six others were taken ill after consuming spurious liquor in the district over the weekend, an excise department official said today.

A magisterial inquiry has been ordered into the incident, Tinsukia Deputy Commissioner Oinam Saran Kumar Singh said. The Tinsukia excise department had sealed the premises of an illicit liquor vendor on September 19, Excise Superintendent Hemen Jyoti Baruah told PTI today.

However, the vendor continued selling spurious liquor and after consuming it on September 23, he along with ten others fell ill. The affected people were admitted to Tinsukia civil hospital where five people died, including the vendor over the weekend, the official said.

The others were discharged today, Baruah said. The excise superintendent said, “There is a possibility that the liquor became unfit for consumption since it was stored in a pesticide drum, procured from a nearby tea garden.
May be the drum was not washed properly before storing the liquor, he said.

The dead include the vendor Biswajit Teli alias Gaja Teli, Pappu Thakur, Ajit Tanti, Devojit Kasav and Santosh Karmakar.