Two die after consuming hooch in Bihar’s Gopalganj

District magistrate Nawal Kishor Choudhary, who rushed to the brick-kiln where the labourers worked, said a medical board has been constituted for their post-mortem and viscera will be preserved

Two labourers from Jharkhand died on Wednesday and another was taken ill after they allegedly consumed spurious liquor in Gopalganj district of Bihar, where prohibition was imposed in 2016, even as the district administration said that the cause of death will be confirmed only after their post-mortem.

Representational Image. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The families of the two, Budhwa Panna, 45, and Karma Panna, 50, insisted they died after consuming liquor on Tuesday evening. Komal, a relative of one of the two, said over six labourers had liquor. When the condition of three of them deteriorated, they were rushed to a Bhore hospital.

District magistrate Nawal Kishor Choudhary, who rushed to the brick-kiln where the labourers worked, said a medical board has been constituted for their post-mortem and viscera will be preserved.

A joint team of excise officials and district police carried out searches around a five-km radius of the brick-kiln but found nothing.

“Preliminary investigation suggested that one of the victims was suffering from a lung infection while another complained of the stomach pain,” said Choudhary.

On February 5, three people died and five fell ill after consuming spurious liquor in Kaimur district.

Manufacturing, sale and consumption of liquor are banned in Bihar.

Opposition Congress leader Premchand Mishra slammed the Bihar government. “These deaths prove that the prohibition regime has failed. It has only enriched illegal traders and government officials.”