Spurious liquor: Death toll touches 17 on day 2
The number of deaths in Villupuram and Chengalpattu districts after consuming spurious liquor has risen to 17 on Monday, ringing alarm bells in the state machinery. In response to the tragedy, police have been alerted to crack down on sale of spurious liquor resulting in seizures in large numbers in the past two days.
According to an official release, in the last two days, 1842 cases have been registered and 1558 persons were arrested, leading to seizure of 19,029 litres of spurious liquor.
Tamil Nadu Police claimed that so far in 2023, they have seized 2.5 lakh litres of illicit liquor and arrested 55,173 persons, indicating an average seizure of five litres from one accused.
Six persons from Marakkanam in Villupuram district and four persons near Maduranthakam in Chengelpet district had died as on Sunday.
On Monday, six more persons died in Villupuram district and another died in Chengalpattu, police said.
According to the police, M Vijayan (48), D Kesavavelu (70), S Vijayan (45), C Abraham (47), G Sarathkumar (40) of Ekkiyar Kuppam and E Sankar (55) of Marakkanam who were under treatment at Government medical college hospital, Villupuram died on Monday, raising the death toll in Marakkanam incident to 12.
More than 30 persons are still under treatment at hospitals in Villupuram and Puducherry.
Most of the victims in Villupuram district hail from Ekkiyar Kuppam fishing hamlet near Marakkanam, who had consumed the hooch on Saturday evening.
Within few hours, several of them had complained of uneasy feeling and on Saturday, three persons, Suresh (46) and S Shankar (52) and G Dharanivel (50), had died, while on Sunday, D Raja Murthy (60) and Malar Vizhi (70) and Mannangatti (50) died.