Mystery surrounded the deaths of at least seven people and hospitalisation of several others from a single village in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur district in a span of four to five days. Five of these deaths occurred on February 7 and 8.
While the Opposition Congress trained its guns on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led State government, claiming that the men, aged between 40 and 60 years and residents of Lofandi village, died after consuming spurious liquor, the government said “no specific cause of death could be ascertained as of now” at least in a couple of cases.
Feast and fish
A statement issued by the Bilaspur district administration on Saturday said after preliminary inquiry and investigation, it had come to light that the villagers had eaten food served at a marriage ceremony hosted by one Shravan Devangan between February 3 and 6.
“The villagers said some had caught fish in the river on February 6 and cooked the fish on the banks of the river and consumed it. The pre-death symptoms included stomach ache, vomiting, dizziness, lethargy, etc.,” the statement added.
The district administration said that according to the villagers, seven men had died in this period and another person had died due to snake bite.
Previous history
“It was also revealed that some of the deceased villagers were already ill. It was found that Devprasad Patel and Shatrughan Devangan died on February 5. The case [of Devprasad Patel’s death] was registered at Koni police station, with the cause of death mentioned as snakebite in the Panchnama, and the statement of the son.”
“On February 7 and 8, five persons died – Ramuram Sunhale, Komal Lahare, Kanhaiya Patel, Baldev Patel and Kunnu Devangan. Baldev Patel died in Shriram Care Hospital and the cause of death is mentioned as cardiac and respiratory arrest in his death certificate,” a senior official said, adding that except for one of the deceased, the last rites of all other deceased were done by the villagers, and the administration was not informed.
“The district administration team recovered the body of Ramuram Sunhale and sent it to the CIMS [Chhattisgarh Institute of Medical Sciences] for post-mortem. The CIMS report reads, ‘No specific cause of death can be ascertained as of now. Confirmation of cause of death remains pending till viscera, histopathology report and blood analysis report’,” the statement noted.
However, State Congress spokesperson Sushil Anand Shukla on Saturday blamed spurious liquor for the deaths. “Eight people died in Lofandi of Bilaspur district after consuming illegal poisonous liquor and some people are ill. The condition of four is critical. The government and [the ruling] BJP are responsible for these deaths,” he said.
Ramadhar Sunahle, the younger brother of Ramuram Sunahle, said his brother consumed liquor but it was unlikely that the deaths happened due to spurious liquor.
