Death toll from India toxic liquor rises to 170

KOLKATA: The death toll from a mass poisoning in eastern India caused by toxic home-brewed alcohol rose to 170 on Friday, as police made more arrests in the case.
“We now have 170 confirmed dead,” Shyamapada Basak, health services director of West Bengal state told.
He added that authorities expected the toll to rise further as another 145 people were critically ill in local hospitals.
Police said they had arrested another two people, taking the number detained to 12 over the past two days.
“We are now looking for Khonra Badsha, the kingpin of the racket involving the sale of illicit, spurious liquor in the district,” West Bengal police additional director general, Surojit Kar Purokayastha told.
The victims of Tuesday’s alcohol poisoning are from 10 villages in an area near West Bengal’s border with Bangladesh.
Speaking in the state assembly, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the home-made liquor industry had “assumed the proportions of a small-scale industry”.
Suggestion a nexus between politicians and bootleggers, she said “political intervention” made it difficult for police to crack down on the illegal liquor trade.
Many of the victims were labourers and rickshaw drivers too poor to afford branded alcohol who stopped for a drink at illegal bars or bought from bootleggers after work.
Local hospitals have been overwhelmed by victims arriving either unconscious or complaining of abdominal pains and burning in their chests.
Police official Purokayastha said that a forensic team was working to ascertain the chemical ingredients in the toxic brew.