20 die in India from contaminated liquor (Agencies) Updated: 2005-04-13 08:23
A shopkeeper in southern India sold batches of contaminated liquor, killing
at least 20 people, most of them poor villagers, police said Tuesday.
The death toll is likely to rise, as more than 30 people have been
hospitalized since Monday night in the Neelamangala region, 20 miles west of
Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka state, said police inspector Ramesh Kumar.
 Akkaiyamma, right, mother of Kalaiah, 25,
mourns during the last rites of her son at Mathahalli village, 25
kilometers (16 miles) northwest of Bangalore, India, Tuesday, April 12,
2005. Kalaiah was one of twenty people, who died after drinking
contaminated liquor sold by a shopkeeper.
[AP] | Ten people died Monday night and another 10 died Tuesday, he said.
Dozens of people from three villages in the region consumed the liquor, which
was sold in small plastic bags. The bag, which had fake labels, looked like
cheap name-brand liquor, Kumar said.
"We are looking for a local gang that sold the liquor. No arrests have been
made so far," Kumar said.
Such incidents are common in rural India, where cheap, homemade brew is
sometimes mixed with methyl alcohol, which can cause blindness or death. The
victims are almost always poor people who cannot afford more expensive alcohol.
Samples of the liquor have been sent to a lab for tests, Kumar
said.
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