WORLD: AT LEAST 34 DIE AFTER DRINKING TOXIC ALCOHOL IN INDIA

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According to Tamil Nadu state officials, a batch of poisonous illicit alcohol in India has killed at least 34 people and sent over 100 others to the hospital on Thursday.

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin claimed that the lethal mixture of locally manufactured arrack drink was spiked with toxic methanol, according to a news story from the Press Trust of India.

According to a statement from his office, Stalin claimed that arrests had been made in relation to the fatalities and warned that these kinds of acts “ruin society and will be suppressed with an iron fist.”

Every year in India, inexpensive alcohol produced in shady distilleries claims hundreds of lives.

The liquor is frequently tainted with methanol to boost its potency, which can result in blindness, liver damage, and even death.

In the Tamil Nadu case, more than 100 people were hospitalised according to M.S. Prasanth, top government official in the state’s Kallakurichi district, quoted by Indian media.

State governor R.N. Ravi was “deeply shocked” at the deaths, adding that “many more victims are in serious condition battling for (their) lives”, writing on social media platform X.

Tamil Nadu is not a dry state, but liquor traded on the black market comes at a lower price than alcohol sold legally.

Selling and consuming liquor is prohibited in several other parts of India, further driving the thriving black market for potent and sometimes lethal backstreet moonshine.

Last year, poisonous alcohol killed at least 27 people in one sitting in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, while in 2022, at least 42 people died in Gujarat.

AFP

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