MUMBAI // The number of people killed in a Mumbai slum after drinking toxic homemade liquor rose to 90 on Saturday, in what is India’s latest incident of mass alcohol poisoning.
Dhananjay Kulkarni, police deputy commissioner in the western Indian city, said that the death toll could continue to rise.
“Ninety people have now died,” he said. “More than 40 are being treated in hospital and the death toll may reach 100.”
Victims first started to fall ill on Wednesday morning after consuming the illegal alcohol and patients were still being admitted to hospital on Saturday.
Five people have so far been arrested for distributing and selling the alcohol in a slum in the suburb of Malad West, in the north of the city.
Eight police officers have also been suspended for “negligence” for allowing the sale to take place on their patch, Mr Kulkarni said.
An investigation is taking place into whether high levels of methanol were present in the moonshine.
Methanol, a highly toxic form of alcohol used as antifreeze or fuel, is often added to bootleg liquor in India as a cheap and quick method of upping the alcohol content.
Unlicensed liquor – often called “country liquor” – is widely consumed across India where it is sometimes sold for less than a dollar for a 250ml bottle. Deaths are frequently reported.
However, it is rare for such incidents to occur in a major city like Mumbai, with most cases taking place in poor, rural villages.
This case is the worst of its kind to be recorded in Mumbai since 2004 when around 100 people died.
In January, more than 31 people died near Lucknow, the state capital of Uttar Pradesh, after drinking a lethal batch of home-brew.
And in October 2013, police in the northern state arrested 12 people after more than three dozen villagers also died from toxic liquor.
Meanwhile, in 2011 nearly 170 people died in the eastern state of West Bengal after drinking moonshine.
* Agence France-Presse
