KOLKATA, India - A batch of home-brewed liquor possibly laced with a lethal dose of the highly toxic chemical methanol has killed more than 100 people in eastern India, an official told AFP on Thursday.Hospitals near the impoverished district of 24-Parganas, 30km from the West Bengal state capital Kolkata, have been overwhelmed by victims, many of them labourers and rickshaw drivers too poor to afford branded alcohol.
Methanol was found in the viscera (organs) of at least 20 victims. It may not be the sole reason for the death. We are investigating Chiranjib Murmu, superintendent of the local Diamond Harbour hospital, he said.- Bootleg liquor is widely consumed in India because of its low cost, with a local resident in the affected area telling AFP that a half-litre cost as little as 6.0 rupees (11 cents US).
"The death toll has touched 102," the district magistrate of 24-Parganas, Narayan Swarup Nigam, said by telephone, adding that many others were critically ill.- He said that methanol - a type of industrial-strength alcohol used as anti-freeze or fuel - had been found in the remains of 20 of the victims examined by doctors, leading to suspicion that the chemical was to blame.
- Angry local residents ransacked village breweries and staged protests, local police told AFP.
Johnson Edayaranmulah, executive director of the lobby group Indian Alcohol Policy Alliance, said that deaths from adulterated alcohol were common in the country. He said that if methanol was to blame, it might have been mistaken by the producers for ethanol, which is less toxic. Bootleg liquor was available "everywhere" in India, he told AFP.
Enforcement is very weak. There is an unholy nexus between the authorities - police, excise, politicians - and the bootlegger. Police take bribes, excise officers take bribes, everyone turns a blind eye to this. It shows the corruption that is part of the Indian mindset, he explained.
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