JUNE 20, 2015
At least 84 people have died after consuming homemade liquor
in a poor neighborhood outside Mumbai, the deadliest such case in the city in
more than a decade, officials said Saturday.
Five people were arrested and eight police officers
suspended pending an investigation into how the illicit liquor was allowed to
be sold over the counter from a neighborhood shack, the city’s police
commissioner, Rakesh Maria, told local media.
The deaths occurred in the Laxmi Nagar slum in the suburb of
Malad, a fast-growing area north of Mumbai, India’s financial capital.
Officials said all the victims consumed the liquor on Wednesday night and had
apparently suffered methanol poisoning.
Methanol, a simple alcohol that can damage the central
nervous system in humans, was reportedly added to a batch of homemade liquor to
increase its potency, police said. The concoction was sold for 10 rupees a
glass, or about 15 cents.
Cheap country liquor is commonly available in India, and
scores of people routinely die from consuming a toxic brew. Nearly 170 people
died in 2011 in a similar case in the eastern state of West Bengal.
Authorities and excise officials regularly conduct raids on
bootlegging operations, but the practice continues to thrive, particularly in
slums where cops can be bribed to look the other way.
In the deadliest recent case in Mumbai, in 2004, 87 people
died after consuming toxic liquor. Four men convicted of supplying the hooch
were sentenced to life in prison and 15 others received lesser terms.