Hooch poisoning: After Gopalganj, West Champaran, BSF SI, Army personnel among 4 dead in Samastipur; toll now 33

PATNA: Hooch death spree continues in dry Bihar with at least four fresh deaths surfacing from three different villages in Rupauli panchayat under Patori police station area in Samastipur district on Saturday.
The deaths had taken place one after another till Friday midnight but authorities got a hint about hooch poisoning by 7am on Saturday.
At least 13 people in Gopalganj and 16 people in Bettiah in West Champaran have ‘officially’ died from poisonous hooch consumption from Wednesday.
The toll in Bettiah remained the same but it increased to 13 in Gopalganj on Saturday with fresh deaths.
Overall deaths count in these three incidents stood at 33 till Saturday evening.
Bihar: Toll rises to 26 in Gopalganj and West Champaran hooch poisoning incidents
The recent ugly scenario created from continuous hooch death has put the state government’s prohibition policy in dock with virtually no ground effectiveness to stop rampant liquor smuggling.
In less than a month, at least 54 persons have reportedly lost their lives in five hooch incidents including Samastipur.
Now overall at least 107 persons have lost their lives till now since January this year in 16 separate hooch incidents.
These figures include even those whose bodies were cremated without informing police and getting a post-mortem done.
The deceased persons this time in Samastipur are not only villagers but includes a Border Security Force sub-inspector Vinay Kumar Singh (55) posted in Jammu and an Army personnel Jagannath Rai (28), posted in Delhi.
Two other deceased persons are Shyam Nandan Choudhary (52) and Veerchandra Rai (27).
Vinay and Veerchandra hailed from Rupauli Chaksima village, Jagannath from Bhagwaanpur Chaksima and Shyamnandan from Sangrampur.
Those who are ill and undergoing treatment are Yaduvansh Rai and Deepak Singh. Both hail from Rupauli Chaksima. Yaduvansh is under treatment at Samastipur sadar hospital while Deepak is undergoing treatment in AIIMS-Patna.
Jagannath was rushed to military hospital in Danapur, Patna on Friday night after falling ill but died later.
When asked, Samastipur SP Manavjit Singh Dhillon told TOI over phone that police are primarily assuming that these deaths are from poisonous hooch consumption.
“No other reasons are visible before police for the deaths and illness. Police have recovered a few small IMFL bottles from which liquor was consumed,” he said. He said it seems poisonous IMLF was manufactured and packed in liquor bottles for smuggling.
“The label pasted in the bottle seems fake as wrong spelling of ‘Bengaluru’ is printed on it,” SP said.
He said that police had been able to get post-mortem of three deceased persons conducted as family members of the fourth deceased Veerchandra had already cremated his body in a hurry on late Friday night.
“All the family members tried to cover-up the deaths from poisonous liquor consumption. They kept citing food poisoning and other reasons behind deaths but later it became clear that they all had consumed liquor,” Dhillon said.
SP Dhillon said that the villagers had consumed liquor on the night of November 3 and November 4. “Liquor bottles were purchased from a general store and milk booth owner in Rupauli,” he said.
He said both of them are evading arrest. “Separate teams are working to arrest them. At present, a door-to-door medical survey of the entire panchayat is being carried out so that any ill person can be rushed for treatment,” SP said, adding those under treatment are completely stable.
Patori police station SHO Mukesh Kumar said that the Army personnel had reached the village on October 22 to attend the last rites of his aunt. “The BSF SI had reached home on November 2 for Diwali vacation,” he said.
SHO Kumar said that a police team had spotted a crowd at Patori sub-divisional hospital on Friday night.
“Vijay was brought there but he had died. Police team asked family members the reason behind death to which they cited illness. The team asked them to get a post-mortem done but they had denied,” he said.
SHO said that later when more deaths came to light by Saturday morning, investigation cleared that Vinay had also consumed liquor.