hooch tragedy: organic pesticide was root-cause: doctor confirmed

Organic pesticide was possibly mixed with the liquor that was consumed by the victims of the hooch tragedy occurred on Friday in Bolangir district that took the lives of 7 people. It was apprehended that liquor became poisonous with organic-pesticide causing severe damage to the livers. This was revealed from the Primary examination of the doctors at VSS medical College Hospital of Burla where 6 victims were admitted soon after the incident.
“We tried to administer methyl-alcohol to the victims in order to get their speedy recovery. But when it did not work we examined further and found organic pesticide in the liquor they consumed. We apprehended that organic pesticide was mixed with the liquor to increase its toxicity”, the superintendent of the VSS Medical Hospital Dr. Guna Sagar Dash told on Saturday.
According to him 6 of the victims, admitted in the Hospital at Burla soon after the incident are in critical condition because of the organic pesticide. However 4 victims are slowly improving because of their positive response to the treatment. “When 4 victims are responding to our treatment another 2 are still in critical condition”, Dr. G S Dash told.
It may be mentioned here that in a hooch tragedy 7 persons including 2 females were died in Gondpali under Agalpur police station of Bolangir on Friday. Another 6 victims were brought to the VSS medical College Hospital in critical condition soon after the incident.
Meanwhile, the administration of nearby Baragarh and Sambalpur districts seemed to have awakened from a long sleep after the Bolangir hooch tragedy. While the boarder of the Bolangir and Bargarh was sealed by the police with series of raids in the bordering villages to check the smuggling of spurious liquor, Sambalpur police circulated red alert in the district on Friday evening. The Sambalpur police have raided as many 14 places and seized huge amount of spurious liquor. The police have also registered as many as 14 cases under ‘excise act’ and arrested 14 persons involved in the illegal trade. ”We alerted all police stations of the district and raided various places under the direct supervision of the SP Sanjay Kumar. We arrested 14 people involved in the illicit liquor trade in various police stations. We forwarded them to the judicial custody on Saturday under state excise act” , the DSP( crime) Dinabandhu Patel said.