Suspected hooch kills 11 in Begusarai, Nawada and Rohtas

PATNA/BEGUSARAI: Altogether 11 persons have died allegedly due to hooch poisoning in Nawada, Begusarai and Rohtas districts in the ‘dry’ state since Holi on Monday. Police, however, did not confirm any hooch death and were probing the incidents.
Except in Begusarai where two persons died and police took possession of the bodies for conducting postmortem on Wednesday, the deceased in other districts were cremated by their kin, making it difficult for the administration to ascertain the cause of deaths.
Two hooch deaths were reported from Goriyari village under Bakhri police station area in Begusarai, four from Badhauni panchayat under Town police station in Nawada and five at Kochas and Kargahar in Rohtas.
Begusarai DM Arvind Kumar Verma said he, along with SP Awakash Kumar, visited the village after getting reports about hooch deaths. “However, the family members of the deceased, ward members and other villagers denied that they had consumed liquor.
We have decided to register unnatural death cases for further investigating the matter,” he said. Verma said one Virendra from the village is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Begusarai. “He also denied consuming liquor. Postmortem of the deceased have been conducted and viscera preserved,” the DM said.
Bakhri SHO Basuki Nath Jha said the deceased were identified as Rajkumar Sahni (22) and Sakaldeo Choudhary (35).
In reply to a query, the DM admitted that 400 litres of countrymade liquor was seized from the village during raids on March 22. Verma said the deceased as well as the one in hospital had symptoms of vomiting and loose motion.
Incidentally, two of the four deceased in Nawada also suffered from vomiting, diarrhoea and breathlessness. Nawada Town police station SHO TN Tiwari said the deceased were identified as Ramdev Ram (60) of Gondapur, Gopal Singh (35) of Kiswa, Prabhakar Gupta (40) of Akbarpur and one Loha Singh Thathera of Kharidi Bigha village. “Ram died on Wednesday morning while Singh passed away on Tuesday. Gupta died on March 28 and Thathera three days back,” he added.
Sadar SDPO Upendra Prasad said since the bodies have been cremated, the cause of death could not be ascertained.
Nawada DM Yash Pal Meena said a team of doctors and district administration officers was constituted to ascertain the reason for their vomiting, diarrhoea and breathlessness. “Nothing related to hooch poisoning has surfaced yet. The four died in two different villages of Bhadauni. The doctor has mentioned cardiac arrest as the reason behind the third death,” he said.
“The family of one deceased is yet to be traced. Private doctors who treated the other two for vomiting, diarrhoea and breathlessness said no foul smell was coming from their mouth to ascertain that they had consumed liquor," he said.
Meena said they might have died of food poisoning or by consuming expired medicines. “We are probing the case from all angles,” he said.
Rohtas SP Ashish Bharti said all the five bodies had been cremated without informing the administration. “The DM has constituted a probe team to ascertain if the deaths were related to hooch poisoning. Nothing can be said at the moment,” he said.
The deceased were identified as Vinod Chauhan of ward number 11, Manoj Ram of ward number 13, Ramavatar Ram of Chawri and Rajesh Singh of Kanjar under Kochas police station area and Satish Kumar of Rampur under Kargahar police station area.
“Satish, 16, died on Wednesday. He suffered from vomiting and diarrhoea after eating too much on Holi,” he said. The SP said Ramavatar also died after suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea on March 24. He said Ganesh and Manoj had fallen ill on Monday while Vinod was found dead in his house on Tuesday.
“The family members of the deceased said some people had promised them financial assistance from the government if they told the police that their kin died after consuming liquor,” the SP said.
“A team led by Sasaram SDO is conducting inquiry,” he added.