Three people died and at least 20 others fell sick after they allegedly consumed adulterated toddy in Telangana’s Mahabubnagar district in the last two days, but the excise department authorities ruled out the possibility of adulteration as they hailed from different parts of the district.
While Asannna (52) from Koderu village died on Monday night, two others – Vishnu Prakash (27) and Renuka (55) of Ambedkar Colony died on Wednesday evening – all the three at Mahabubnagar government hospital. At least 10 others are undergoing treatment at the hospital.
Hospital superintendent Dr D Ramkishan told local reporters that the victims from different parts of the district had admitted to the hospital over the last three days with complaints of uneasiness, giddiness and vomiting. But there were no symptoms of them affected by adulterated liquor at the time of admission, he said.
“In fact, some of them had alcohol withdrawal symptoms. We have conducted the post mortem and scent the viscera samples to the forensic lab. It will take two to three weeks to get the report and only after that we shall be able to tell whether the victims died of spurious toddy consumption,” the hospital superintendent said.
Mahabubnagar superintendent of police K Narasimha told HT that nobody had lodged any complaint with the police about any toddy shop supplying adulterated liquor. “We shall be able to book the cases only if it is revealed in the medical report that the victims died of consuming adulterated toddy,” he said.
District excise superintendent S Saidulu also ruled out the possibility of the deaths due to adulterated toddy consumption. “Consumption of toddy is a common practise in the rural areas. If all the cases are from any particular depot, then we can suspect that they could be due to adulterated toddy,” he said.
However, the victims are from different places; so, the possibility of supply of adulterated toddy at all these places simultaneously is very less. “Moreover, there are many others who consumed toddy in the same depots, but they are not affected. How can only two or three people get affected?” Saidulu asked.
He said the deaths could be due to heatwave or some other health complications which they already had. “In any case, we are not taking any chances. We have called for further tests to find out if there were any other dangerous or harmful chemicals in the toddy,” he said.
State excise minister V Srinivas Goud, who called on the people undergoing treatment at the hospital, said the government would not spare anybody, if it was proved that the victims died due to consumption of adulterated toddy.
“As of now, the doctors have said the victims had no symptoms of any spurious alcohol consumption. We shall wait for the forensic report before making any further comments,” he said.
