Four persons died after allegedly consuming adulterated liquor in Odisha’s Angul district.
The Angul police have arrested the main accused. While one of the two accomplices of the accused fell victim to contaminated liquor, the other accused was undergoing treatment in a hospital.
The incident took place at Pathargarh village under the Purunakote police station limit of Angul district.
“As per preliminary investigation, the contractor tried to extract additional work from labourers by providing liquor. He had perhaps added some spurious substance to make liquor more intoxicant. All four victims are labourers,” Anjan Kumar Manik, State Excise Commissioner, told The Hindu on phone.
“As per the complaint, Kalia Dehury is a building contractor. He took a contract of construction of a house in Pathargarh village. He had engaged about 15-20 labourers for the work. In addition to payment, he used to give labourers liquor made by him,” said the Angul police.
“Kalia Dehury manufactured distilled liquor illicitly in the forest of Pathargarh. He was assisted by Basant Dehury and Sashikant Dehury in making liquor,” the police said.
Basant and Sashikant, who were also engaged in the construction work as labourers, had also consumed liquor after day’s work.
“We have received information that four persons have died including one accused Sashikant Dehury,” said the Angul police. Basant Dehury is admitted to hospital.
A post-mortem of two bodies has been conducted and viscera preserved. Blood samples of the victims have been collected.
The three other victims were identified as Kaira Pradhan, Tukuna Pradhan and Pramod Sahu. In all, six persons were suspected to have consumed the liquor.
