Tainted alcohol kills scores in India

15/12/2011| IslamWeb

More than a hundred people have died after drinking toxic alcohol in India's West Bengal state, police say.

Day laborers and other poor workers in the village of Sangrampur, about 30 kilometers south of Kolkata, began falling ill late on Tuesday after drinking the bootleg brew, according to district magistrate Narayan Swarup Nigam.

Some 100 others were being treated in hospital, with fears the death toll could rise.

Police have arrested four people in connection with making and distributing the methanol-spiked liquid, which is also used as a fuel, solvent and anti-freeze.

Toxic alcohol deaths are a regular occurrence in India, last week, the state of Gujarat brought in a new law making the illegal manufacture and sale of toxic alcohol there punishable by death.

Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of the state of West Bengal, has promised a crackdown on toxic alcohol.

Furious villagers ransacked the illegal alcohol shops and breweries, local police told the AFP news agency.

PHOTO CAPTION

A still used to make a home-made liquor in India.

Al-Jazeera