Angul: The spectre of spurious liquor in this district loomed large as two women workers engaged in a poultry farm at Chandanpur Saruali under Bantala police limits in Angul district allegedly died due to consumption of spurious alcohol.
The matter came to the fore after fellow workers spotted the two lying lifeless Wednesday morning and alerted farm owner Arun Singh who rushed them to Angul district headquarters hospital (DHH). However, the doctors declared them brought dead.
The deceased have been identified as Bimala Nayak, 48, and Buduni Naik, 40 of Koida area in Sundargarh district.
According to reports, the duo was working at the poultry farm of Arun Kumar Singh of Chandanpur. As usual, they worked in the poultry farm Tuesday. After work, everyone had a drinking session and went to sleep. However, the two failed to wake up Wednesday morning.
The exact reason behind their deaths is yet to be ascertained, Angul SDPO Harihar Pani said, adding that the exact reason would be known after the receipt of the autopsy report.
Bantala IIC Sabyasachi Rout seized the bodies and sent it for post-mortem. Later, a team led by IIC Rout conducted raids at illegal country liquor dens.
Baby crying near mother’s body
Our correspondent from Bantala added that even as the whole village was taken aback after the two women’s death, the worst sufferer was Ganesh, the three-month-old son of Bimala.
According to sources, Bimala hailed from Sundargarh. Before joining the poultry farm she worked as a labourer. She was in a relationship with a youth of the locality and gave birth to Ganesh three months back.
However, the youth deserted both the mother and the son after the delivery. Since then Bimala was taking care of her son alone. She had left Sundargarh and joined the poultry farm to earn enough for her son.
However, destiny played a cruel joke on her. The baby was found crying near the body throughout the night. Taking pity, Sosida Munda, 32, a local woman, cared for the baby and nursed him with milk. However, she refused to adopt the baby as she herself was a mother to another child. In such circumstances, the future of the child has been pushed into uncertainty.
PNN