A twelve-thirteen-year-old girl was walking towards the crowd outside the Mashrak government school with her voter card and Aadhaar card in hand.
The girl said that her father, Harendra Ram, had died after drinking counterfeit liquor and that she had been called to the Social Health Welfare Center with the identity card of the deceased to issue the death certificate. Nearby sits the girl’s sister, holding her six-year-old brother on her lap. It was this little child who performed the last rites of his father.
Was there no way to prevent this child from being forced into the plight of being cremated? This question arose in my mind. It was only then that it came to light that the deceased Harendra Ram’s brother could not perform the last rites as he had been unwell for a few days.
“He was the only breadwinner in the house. There were four of us who depended on him. He worked as a wage earner and life went on. Now we don’t know what will happen. He died of alcohol. Where did the alcohol come from? We didn’t even get a chance to know,” Harendra Ram’s wife told the BBC.
Four people have died around this house.
Bharat Ram’s dead body is still in the house. His mother is crying. Children are very young. They don’t even know the meaning of death. They don’t even know that the father who brought food every evening until yesterday is now gone. Cheap booze has ruined their lives.
Harendra Ram’s family
Alcohol-related deaths continue in Bihar
The death toll after drinking adulterated liquor in Sabra in Bihar’s Saran district has risen to 29. 27 people died in Sabra and 2 in Patna.
Most of the victims in the Sabra incident belonged to the Dalit community or were very poor.
Prohibition has been in effect in this state for the last 6 years. However, deaths due to consumption of fake liquor are not new here. This is the first time that so many deaths due to adulterated liquor have occurred in Saran’s mashrak area.
Most of the people who died after drinking liquor here were residents of Mashrak Nagar Panchayat.
The mashrak taqt area is in the middle of the mashrak. People say that the whole mashrak is based on this.
The scenes of death can be clearly seen in the Mashrak Takht area. First I reached the police station here. There were some policemen there. But there is no one to give information. Some locals said that several people had died in the opposite street.
There is a government school within the street. Some children were studying there, while some children were seen in the crowd outside.
First death due to counterfeiting
A young man took me to Laljari Devi’s house.
We reached his house through narrow and unpaved streets. It was revealed to us that her husband Chandrama Ram died first in Mashrak Daktu when he had been drinking a black liquor on Tuesday afternoon.
Chandrama Ram used to drink liquor occasionally. If you stop him, he will get angry. He did home remedies for children. But he could not heal himself.
Nearby is the house of Mohan, who owns a sweet shop. In the morning he was rushed to Sabra. Neighbors said that his grandson got married. Since Wednesday, he has been having problems with his eyesight. No one has any concrete information as to what happened and why.
Local people say that 50 people have died due to alcohol poisoning. But the administration has confirmed only 26 deaths as of this writing.
Saran SP told the BBC that there was no report of mob drinking.
People’s anger at the administration – Where did the booze come from?
Although prohibition is strictly enforced, some have expressed displeasure with the administration over how liquor is sold here. When the villagers asked the same question, where does the wine come from, their response was… “We don’t know.”
“When the lockdown was in effect during Covid, not a single person came out of the house because the administration worked well. But how is alcohol sold now? No one can sell liquor if the administration thinks so,” said Munna Kumar Tiwari, a local resident.
This area is thirty-five kilometers from Sabra, the district headquarters of Saran. Mashrak has a population of twenty thousand and has a government school and a hospital. At the community health center here, we saw a huge crowd and they were in great distress.
When asked what happened to a crying woman, a person who was with her said, “Nothing happened. Her husband is a bit nervous hearing the death news continuously. He has been referred to Sadar Hospital,” he said.
Police did not receive information
At least four people died about half a kilometer from the Mashrak police station. But it is also surprising that the police were not aware of the sale of liquor. Perhaps that is why Mashrak’s police station in-charge and watchman have also been suspended.
We reached out to Sabra’s Sadar Hospital to find out more about the deaths due to this counterfeit liquor. Police in the city have been alerted and security has been put in place around the hospital. Movement of administration vehicles and ambulances was constantly seen here.
At Sadar Hospital too, a throng of patients and their families who suffered from the consumption of counterfeit liquor thronged. But with prohibition in force, it seemed like everyone was trying to avoid talking about it.
“15 people were brought dead. Currently, 9 people are undergoing treatment here and 11 have been referred to PMCH,” said Pankaj, a doctor at the hospital.
What is the exact death toll?
“The first death was reported at the hospital around 9pm on Tuesday. This has been going on since yesterday. Those who are being treated are at risk of losing sight. Their condition is not that good.” Dr Pankaj told the BBC.
Many in Sabra say the death toll may be higher than official figures. It is said that many do not even inform their families about the deceased. The main reason for this is that drinking alcohol is illegal in Bihar and it is not considered socially acceptable to drink such alcoholic beverages.
“If such incidents have happened in their homes, we request people to report it to us so that we can provide better treatment to the sick. Apart from this, we are forming teams and making people aware. We are conducting investigations and searches. Also, we have arrested 2 people and seized suspicious items,” he said. Saran SP Santosh Kumar said.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar
Politics in Prohibition
From the state capital Patna, far away from Saran’s mashrak, to the national capital Delhi, the political atmosphere regarding the incident has heated up. Opposition parties continue to blame the state government and administration for this incident.
In the first 10 years of Nitish Kumar’s rule (before liquor ban), liquor sales increased from Rs 200 crore to Rs 4000 crore,” BJP IT wing chief Amit Malaviya tweeted.
At the same time, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar once again said, “Prohibition has been a success. It has changed people’s lives. After prohibition many people eat better food and spend on other things.”
Commenting on the death of at least 26 people after drinking spurious liquor in Bihar’s Saran district, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said, “A person who drinks alcohol will surely die, an example of this is right before our eyes.”
Nitish Kumar, who has faced criticism from the opposition parties regarding the liquor prohibition law implemented in the state, told reporters, “People are dying because of liquor. They are dying all over the country. People were dying here even when there was no liquor prohibition.”
“People need to know that if a banned item is sold, there is bound to be some adulteration in it. A drunkard will surely die, and we have an example of this before our eyes. Such incidents should be mourned. People should be told,” he said.
“No matter how much work is done in the society, some people create chaos. There are already many laws to prevent crime. But they kill, don’t they? What can be done… Some people create chaos,” remarked Nitish Kumar.
image source, Getty Images
Sushilkumar Moti
Responding to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s statement that “a drinker will die”, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said, “crores of people in the country drink alcohol, should they all die?”
Sushil Moti said illegal liquor trade has become a parallel economy in Bihar. He alleged that those in charge of enforcing prohibition in Bihar were making crores.
BJP supports prohibition. But its leaders are demanding a review of the policy, said the former deputy chief minister of Bihar.
BJP MP and Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal raised the issue in Parliament.
“According to my information, 50 people have died and many others are in critical condition. But the administration has threatened people and hidden the figures. The administration has put pressure on them. People have been told that if this matter comes out, they will be booked,” Maharajganj MP Janardhan Singh Sigriwal told BBC. Accused.
Janardhan Singh Sigriwal’s constituency has the highest number of deaths due to consumption of spurious liquor.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav, responding to the accusations of the opposition parties, said, “There is a drive against fraud. It is because the government is responsible that the press conference is held and the statistics are given.”
Earlier on Wednesday too, there was a huge commotion in the Bihar Legislative Assembly over the liquor issue.
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