Toxic alcohol kills 143 in West Bengal

Kolkata : It is now one of India worst liquor tragedies, at least 143 people have so far died and over 100 are hospitalised in rural West Bengal after they drank hooch liquor that came as cheap as Rs.10 a glass.

The liquor tragedy victims in Sangrampur in South 24 Parganas district were mostly rickshaw pullers, labourers and hawkers, who sat in shanties to drink as a way to relax after a hard day’s work. The drink came for Rs.10 a glass or Rs.20 a plastic pouch and, according to reports, many teenaged boys too are among the victims.

Last Friday, a huge fire tragedy killed 93 people in a south Kolkata’s AMRI hospital.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has ordered a Criminal Investigation Department probe into the liquor deaths in Sangrampur, barely 50 km from capital Kolkata.

This is one of the worst liquor tragedies in India. Earlier in 1992, over 200 people had died in Orissa after consuming spurious liquor. In 2009, a similar incident in Gujarat left 136 dead.

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