West Bengal: 10 Die After Consuming Spurious Liquor in Howrah, Angry Residents Blame Police

Kolkata :  At least 10 persons died after consuming spurious liquor  in Howrah district of West Bengal on Wednesday. This is the second such incident within a month, after the Burdwan liquor tragedy in June that took the lives of 20 persons.

Citing unconfirmed sources, local residents said the death toll may rise up to 20-22. On Wednesday morning,when the news of the liquor deaths started coming, there was high tension in the area, known as Gajanan Bustee. As per reports, a liquor  distillery and wine shop was vandalised by allegedly by angry residents .

Police were mobilised in huge numbers and the Rapid Action Force was also deployed in the wake of growing tension. The presence of police made the local residents “angrier” as they alleged that police was in the know of the illegal hooch den from day one but did not take any action to stop it.

Furthermore, residents also alleged that some police personnel from the Malipanchghora police station used to visit the illegal hooch den regularly and used to collect ‘hafta’ (commission).

On Wednesday, angry residents also gheraoed the local police station officer in-charge  Amit Mitra and told him that despite the police being informed several times that the local hooch den was responsible for multiple deaths in the past, no action had been taken.

Rows of dead bodies were left in the open awaiting cremation on Wednesday. Besides an animal shed, huge jars of illegal hooch could be seen stored, according to reports. Next to it was a room full of bottles of liquor manufactured by legal entities.

Later, the police sealed the entire room and animal shed. The owner of the  illegal hooch shop, Pratap Karmakar, has been arrested by the police following pressure from growing people's wrath.

The relatives of one of the deceased, Ranajit Gupta , told reporters blamed “ irresponsibility” of the local police station for spurious liquor being made in the area.

Another victim Partha Pratim Das’s family told reporters that after his work got over in the factory in Gajanan bustee area, he went to the hooch den to consume alcohol. In the wee hours of night, Das started vomiting blood and died on the way to Howrah General Hospital.  

In each of the cases of death, the bodies had not been taken for post-mortem and were cremated, based on doctors’ certificate, flouting all norms, the relatives alleged.

On Wednesday evening, Parvin Tripathi, Police Commissioner of Howrah, visited Gajanan bustee area, but all local police officers remained tight-lipped about the incident.  A forensic team also took samples of the spurious liquor.

In a related development, in a Right to Information reply sought by socio-legal researcher and  RTI activist Biswanath Goswami, the excise department of government of West Bengal said  that they do not have the tally of people who had died in the state after consuming illegal liquor in the past one year. This was surprising as Goswami said he had first approached the police for and RTI response and was told that this record is kept by the excise department. However, the excise department cited its inability to provide the number of the people who had  died in the state in the past one year by consuming spurious liquor .