Agra (UP): Four people have died in two villages of Uttar Pradesh’s Agra district allegedly after consuming suspected spurious liquor. This information was given Tuesday by a village head and family members of the victims. Police said the incident took place on Monday night in Kaulara Kalan and Barkula villages in Agra. Four liquor shops in the locality have been sealed. Police, however, have not yet confirmed that deaths occurred due to the consumption of spurious liquor.
“The actual cause of the death is not known yet and that will be known only after post-mortem,” Agra SP (Rural East) Ashok Venkat stated.
The SP identified the suspected hooch tragedy victims as Radhe (42), Anil (34) and Ramveer (40) of Kaulara Kala village and Gaya Prasad (50) of Barkula village.
Anil’s father Shri Niwas (65) alleged that his son and two other people of his village died of consuming spurious liquor only and that they had bought it from the village shop. “My son was a habitual drinker and he sat to drink along with Radhe and Ramveer Sunday night despite my repeated pleas to them not to drink,” Niwas said. “Anil was taken ill on Monday and I took him to a local doctor and then to a hospital in Agra where he died,” Niwas added.
He added that Anil worked as a labourer and had taken to drinking liquor after abandoning his wife and four children.
Kaulara Kalan resident Sudip too confirmed that Anil along with Radhe and Ramveer had consumed spurious liquor Sunday and they were taken ill on Monday. “Ramveer had also complained of losing his eyesight,” he said.
Niwas further alleged that his village and its surrounding areas have become a hub of the illicit liquor trade. “A man comes on a motorcycle every day early in the morning and delivers liquor to a village trader,” he claimed.
Endorsing Niwas’ allegations that his village and its adjoining areas have become a hub of the illicit liquor trade, Kaulara Kalan’s village head Shankar Singh said, “I too have raised this issue of illicit trade in the area with police and other authorities repeatedly but no one heeds to our complaints. They must be getting cuts from the illicit liquor trade.”
The last rites of the third man Radhe, who too died allegedly after consuming illicit liquor, was done by his family members on late Monday night without permission from the police, villagers said. The other three bodies have been sent for post-mortem.
Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh district, not far away from Agra, had been rocked in late May and early June this year by at least 36 deaths due to illicit liquor consumption following which several people had been arrested. Officials had then estimated that at least 100 people had died in the district in two separate cases related to the consumption of spurious liquor.