19 Die After Drinking Fake Liquor In Nagaland, Probe Confirms It Had Methanol

The death count in Nagaland's suspected spurious liquor tragedy has risen to 19. As of Friday, the Mokokchung district reported eight deaths, in addition to 11 deaths earlier reported from the Tuensang district.

Over the past two weeks, several people have died in Nagaland due to the consumption of spurious liquor. The tragedy first came to light on September 24, when four died and another four fell ill in Mangkolemba. Police have now arrested several people.

Later on the same day, forensic examination results confirmed the presence of methanol in the samples of the liquor. This has become one of the largest fake liquor tragedies reported in Nagaland in recent years.

Police have formed a Special Investigative Team (SIT) to probe the deaths.

In Mokokchung, police confirmed on Saturday that six people died in the Mangkolemba sub-division and two in the Mokokchung Police Station-II area.

Two more deaths were reported on September 25, taking the district's total count to eight.

Nagaland police have started a crackdown against spurious liquor and arrested multiple people linked with the case, the state's Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order ) Sandeep M Tamgadge said.

"These deaths have happened over a period of two weeks. Right from the first death, Nagaland police has investigated the case and we have launched a crackdown that is still continuing. We arrested several people related to this case. The crackdown will be intensified," Tamgadge told NDTV from Kohima over the phone.

The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Dimapur, in its report dated September 24, has reported that the exhibits tested positive for methanol (methyl alcohol) qualitatively. However, FSL Dimapur stated that quantitative estimation could not be carried out due to the non-availability of required instruments. The samples have now been sent to Guwahati.

Tuensang Police had earlier seized over 470 bottles and arrested several persons. The DGP Nagaland has issued a red alert for the eastern districts.

Meanwhile, both Tuensang and Mokokchung police have appealed to the public to exercise caution and refrain from consuming any unidentified, unlabelled or suspected illicit alcoholic beverage.

With combined seizures now crossing over 3,200 bottles/cans across Tuensang and Mokokchung.