<![CDATA[After allegedly consuming ‘spurious’ liquor at Hatma village under Gonda police station limits of Ranchi on Sunday, at least five people died and one was taken ill. The Gonda police confirmed the deaths and hospitalisation of a 68-year-old lady. The deceased were identified as Paras Thakur (70), Pintu Thakur (30), Ashok Mirdha (60), Vijay Mirdha (40) and Billu Mirdha (50). Phulmani Devi (68) was admitted to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) with symptoms of alcohol poisoning where her condition was reported to be critical. The place of incident was around 1 km from Jharkhand chief minister’s residence. It was learnt that one of the deceased, Vijay was working in the CM’s House as a sweeper while the father-son duo of Paras and Pintu Thakur were barbers working in a saloon in the vicinity. The others were daily wage workers. Additional Director General of Police R.K. Mallick said after talking to the family members of the victims that two of the deceased, that Ashok and Billu, died after allegedly consuming the spurious liquor. They had symptoms of blurred vision and vomiting. The viscera report along with the post mortem report would reveal the actual cause of the deaths, he added. DGP Mallick quoting RIMS director RK Shrivastava said that Phulmani Devi’s condition has deteriorated. The RIMS authorities have assured that the doctors were taking all possible steps to stabilize her health. He said that once she is stable, they could look into her medical history and other details. He said that the suspicion of spurious liquor cannot be ruled out as a possible cause of the deaths, but there could be other reasons as well. senior superintendent of police, Anish Gupta said that they will have to wait for the post mortem report to confirm whether the five died after consuming hooch. The police said earlier that there were several raids in the area on reports of hooch being sold there. They had acted upon tip-offs and initiated actions in the locality. ]]>