Police on Monday said 13 people died after consuming toxic alcohol in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state.
Senior Superintendent of Police Akhilesh Kumar said five people died on Saturday and eight on Sunday after consuming the locally-brewed alcohol in Kanpur district.
Kumar said 10 others are being treated at various hospitals and the death toll could rise.
So far 11 people suspected of being involved in the manufacture and sale of the alcohol have been arrested.
Sale of the spirit with brand name Madhuri-442 has been banned.
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“We are carrying out raids to confiscate stores of the alcohol,” Kumar said.
An average of 1,000 people, mostly from the poorer sections of society, die in India each year after consuming locally brewed alcohol, according to National Crime Records Bureau.
Trade in locally brewed alcohol thrives in India, because it is much cheaper than commercially produced alcohol.
The liquor is usually made with poor-quality ingredients, and sometimes mixed with industrial alcohol and toxic substances and incidences of deaths from consuming such alcohol hit the headlines regularly.
In some of the worst cases of such poisoning, 200 people died in 1992 in Orissa state, 180 in West Bengal in 2011 and 100 in Mumbai in 2015.
