At least 34 people have died and over 100 others are hospitalized in a terrible event involving a batch of deadly illicit alcohol in India, according to a report released on Thursday by Tamil Nadu state officials.
Chief Minister MK Stalin said that the lethal mixture of locally manufactured arrack drink was spiked with toxic methanol, according to a news story from the Press Trust of India.
According to a statement from his office, Stalin announced that arrests had been made in connection with the fatalities and warned that such acts “ruin society and will be suppressed with an iron fist.”
Every year in India, inexpensive alcohol produced in shady distilleries claims hundreds of lives.
Methanol is frequently added to liquor to improve its strength, which can result in blindness, liver damage, and even death.
As to the statement provided by Indian media, MS Prasanth, a high-ranking government official in the Kallakurichi district of Tamil Nadu, over a hundred persons were admitted to the hospital in the state.
State governor RN Ravi posted on social media site X that he was “deeply shocked” by the killings and that “many more victims are in serious condition battling for (their) lives”.
Although alcohol supplied officially costs more than that purchased on the illegal market, Tamil Nadu is not a dry state.
Many other regions of India forbid the sale or use of alcohol, which fuels the booming underground industry for strong and occasionally fatal backstreet moonshine.
In the eastern Indian state of Bihar last year, poisoned wine claimed the lives of at least 27 individuals in a single session, while in Gujarat in 2022, at least 42 people perished.
