Five die after drinking 'spurious liquor' in dry Bihar

Five persons havedied allegedly after consuming suspected spurious liquor inthe past three days in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar wheresale and consumption of alcohol are banned.

They died after drinking spurious liquor in Dargahvillage under Katra police station area, a relative of one ofthe victims, Khelawan Manjhi, said on Saturday.

Several political leaders including a BJP MLA alsobacked Manjhi's assertation.

The saffron party is part of the ruling alliance inthe state.

Senior Superintendent of Police Jayant Kant confirmedthat five persons have died in the village but denied that thereason was consumption of spurious liquor.

However, the SSP has suspended Station House Officerof Katra police station, Sikandar Kumar, following theincident.

An FIR has been registered against unknown persons,Kant said.

District Magistrate Pranav Kumar, the SSP and othersenior officials visited the village and met family members ofthe deceased persons on Saturday.

The Muzaffarpur district administration issued astatement saying that the five were not suffering from anyillness and the reason behind their death would be known onlyafter the postmortem examination.

The statement said that it was revealed duringpreliminary investigations that they might have taken somebeverage and the possibility of country liquor beingmanufactured at the village level cannot be denied.

Revenue and Land Reforms Minister and local BJP MLARam Surat Kumar visited the village and that stern action willbe taken against those involved in the manufacture of liquor.

RJD leader and MLA Niranjan Rai, who also went to thevillage to inquire about the incident alleged that thedistrict administration is trying to suppress the incident.

Rai said that he would apprise leader of theopposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav of the incident and raise theissue in the ongoing budget session of the assembly.

District Congress Committee spokesman Ved Prakash hasdemanded a high level probe into the matter.

The Nitish Kumar government had on April 5, 2016banned the manufacture, trade, storage, transportation, saleand consumption of liquor including IMFL in the state.