21 people die, 30 sick in India from drinking spiked liquor

People are transported to the hospital for treatment after falling sick from consuming spurious liquor in Botad, India on July 26, 2022. (AP)

• Not immediately known what chemical was used to alter the liquor
• Illicit liquor has also become a hugely profitable industry across India

AHMEDABAD: At least 21 people have died and 30 others became ill from drinking altered liquor in western India, officials said Tuesday.
Senior government official Mukesh Parmar said the deaths occurred in Ahmedabad and Botad districts of Gujarat state, where manufacturing, sale and consumption of liquor are prohibited. It was not immediately known what chemical was used to alter the liquor.
News agency Press Trust of India said police have detained several suspected bootleggers who were involved in selling the spiked alcohol.
Deaths from illegally brewed alcohol are common in India, where illicit liquor is cheap and often spiked with chemicals such as pesticides to increase potency.
Illicit liquor has also become a hugely profitable industry across India where bootleggers pay no taxes and sell enormous quantities of their product to the poor at a cheap rate.
In 2020, at least 120 people died after drinking tainted liquor in India’s northern Punjab state.