The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Three die after drinking arrack; four taken ill

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 20, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Three die after drinking arrack; four taken ill

By Our Staff Reporter

A victim's daughter being consoled by her relatives at Kollur Mallasandra near Bangalore on Thursday. — Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

BANGALORE, AUG. 19. Three persons died at Kollur Mallasandra village in Hoskote taluk of Bangalore Rural district on Thursday after consuming arrack from sachets bearing the emblem of the Government.

Four persons, who fell ill after consuming the arrack, have been admitted to the intensive care unit of the Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences at Whitefield. Their condition is said to be serious.

The dead were identified as Gowramma (45), Yellamma (45) and Mariappa (55), all labourers.

The names of those admitted were given as Venkatesh, Narayanamma, Yellamma and Gowramma.

They consumed arrack at about 9 a.m. and fell ill within a few minutes thereafter, the police said.

According to the police, there are seven arrack shops in the village and the victims had bought the arrack from three of them.

The proprietors of the three shops, Mangalamma, Dasappa and Manjula, have been arrested on the charge of selling spurious arrack and negligence, according to the police.

Sealed

The Superintendent of Police, Bangalore Rural district, Prashanth Kumar Takur, said the police had sealed the seven shops and seized two gunny bags of arrack sachets.

The Deputy Commissioner, Bangalore Rural district, Kaniram, who visited the village, told The Hindu that the sachets bore the emblem of the Government and was supplied by Mysugars, a State-owned unit.

"The Deputy Commissioner (Excise) has been directed to investigate how `spurious arrack' was supplied in sachets with the Government emblem. The arrack samples would be sent for examination to the Forensic Science Laboratory," he said.

Demonstration

Meanwhile, the villagers staged a demonstration under the banner of the Dalit Sangarsh Samithi demanding that compensation of Rs. 5 lakhs each be paid to the families of the dead. They also wanted the licences of the arrack shops cancelled.

The villagers said that though they had staged a rasta roko on November 26 last year demanding that the arrack shops in the village be closed, the authorities had not responded.

Arrack in grocery shops

"The village has a population of around 3,000 and every day 1,500 sachets of arrack, worth Rs. 15,000, are sold here. Arrack in such sachets is available even in grocery shops," an elderly man said.

Licence

The people said only two shops had obtained licence to sell arrack and the others were illegal.

"The vendors sell the arrack that is supplied to them by the Government companies and they cannot be held responsible for the quality of the arrack," a Dalit Sangharsh Samiti leader said.

Senior officials of the Excise Department, who visited the village, said the licences of the shops would be cancelled during the next excise auction in September.

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