The death toll due to the consumption of spurious liquor in Gujarat’s Botad district has gone up to 28, a senior police official said on Tuesday. The liquor was made from the highly poisonous methyl alcohol, Gujarat Director General of Police Ashish Bhatia told reporters in Gandhinagar. Three First Information Reports (FIRs) have been registered against 14 people on charges of murder and other offences, and most of them have been detained, he said.
The matter had come to light early Monday morning when some people living in Rojid village in Botad and other surrounding villages were referred to government hospitals in the Barvala area and Botad towns after their condition started deteriorating.
Twenty-eight people have so far died after consuming spurious liquor. Of them, 22 belonged to various villages in Botad district while six were from neighbouring Ahmedabad district, Bhatia said.