CHENNAI: At least 30 people have died, and over seventy hospitalised after allegedly consuming spurious liquor in Tamil Nadu’s Kallakurichi district on Wednesday.
Following the incident, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has ordered a CB-CID inquiry and transferred District Collector Sravankumar Jatavath, appointing MS Prashanth as the new Collector for Kallakurichi district.
Kallakurichi SP Samaysingh Meena has been suspended, with Rajath Chaturvedi taking over as the new SP. Several police officials have also faced suspension.
According to News18 sources, one person has been arrested so far in connection with the case.
As per The Hindu report, An official said that preliminary investigations revealed that those admitted were affected due to “methanol poisoning”.
The deaths were reported from Karunapuram, within the limits of the Kallakurichi town police station. According to sources, the victims, mostly daily wage labourers and load men, had reportedly purchased the brew, suspected to be illicit liquor, from a vendor in Karunapuram.
They had consumed it on June 18 (Tuesday) and started experiencing symptoms, including loss of breath, blurred vision and giddiness and repeated bouts of diarrhoea.
Taking to social media platform X, BJP Tamil Nadu president K. Annamalai slammed the Stalin-led DMK government for their inaction in controlling the sale of bootleg liquor in the state.
“I strongly condemn the DMK government, which has taken five lives yet again without taking any action against him despite the fact that DMK Minister Mr. Mastan was in close contact with bootleggers,” Annamalai stated.
