Lucknow: Three die, 5 take ill after having hooch from fair price shop

LUCKNOW: Three persons died while five others took ill after allegedly consuming countrymade liquor, bought from a fair price shop in Banthra on the outskirts of Lucknow.
According to police, they had purchased illicit liquor from a fair price shop in Latifnagar on Wednesday night and took ill on Thursday. Three of them died on Friday morning.
Owner of the fair price shop, Nankau, has been detained for questioning.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has announced exgratia of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to those undergoing treatment.
A magisterial probe has been ordered under additional district magistrate (ADM), east, KP Singh who has been asked to submit his report within seven days.
Deputy commissioner of police, central zone, Somen Barma said the deceased were identified as Sunderlal Rawat (38) and Mohammed Anis (30) of Rasoolpur village and Raj Kumar (30) of Latifnagar. Those undergoing treatment are Kanhaiyalal, Manoj Kori, Kamla Rawat, Raju Rawat and Umesh.
“They consumed liquor on Wednesday night and complained of chest pain and vomiting on Thursday morning. They were admitted to local CHC where three of them died on Friday morning,” Barma said.
He added that Umesh, who is undergoing treatment, said in the FIR that they bought liquor from a government ration shop owned by Nankau. Umesh also named the salesman of the shop, Manvendra, in his complaint.
Barma said excise department officials raided the fair price shop and seized liquor bottles from the spot.
Police received their postmortem examination reports late Friday night but it could not ascertain the exact cause of the deaths. Viscera of the victims has been preserved.
Police said the ration shop owner was in touch with a gang supplying illegal liquor and used his shop to sell hooch.
ADM KP Singh told TOI that licence of the ration shop has been suspended while teams have been formed to conduct a raid on such shops in the area.
Kiran, widow of Sunderlal, said: “My husband was the only earning member in the family. It is the fault of local administration. Why do they allow sale of such products.” Sunderlal has been survived by his wife and three children.