Five dead after consuming liquor in Bihar

Muzaffarpur (Bihar), October 29

Five persons have died and several others fell ill after consuming liquor in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, where total prohibition is in place for more than five years.

Police said the incident took place at Rupauli village under Saraiya police station on Thursday night and four of them died at the hospital this morning. The fifth person’s body was found near his house.

Two persons, including a member of the local panchayat samiti, have been arrested in connection with the incident, the police said.

This is the second incident of death due to consumption of suspected spurious liquor in north Bihar in the last one week.

Muzaffarpur senior superintendent of police Jayant Kant said that preliminary investigation has revealed that the five died after consuming a certain poisonous substance. Post-mortem will determine the exact cause of death.

The SSP said “Police recovered a stack of empty liquor and methyl alcohol bottles from the house of one those who died in the incident. Searches are being conducted in the surrounding areas and a team of forensic experts has been engaged by the police”.

The five dead have been identified by the local police.

A local police officer said that a group of villagers had organised a liquor party at the house of one of those dead in the incident. The health of five persons deteriorated after they consumed the liquor and four of them were admitted to a nearby hospital where they died this morning. The body of the owner of the house was found near it.

There are reports that some more villagers who had attended the party have been admitted to different hospitals and the police are collecting their details, he said.

In the earlier incident five persons had died in a village in Siwan district.

The Nitish Kumar Government had banned the manufacture, trade, storage, transportation, sale and consumption of liquor in the state on April 5, 2016. PTI