India: 16 die after drinking tainted liquor

Sixteen people have died in India’s Orissa state after consuming locally brewed liquor tainted with lethal chemicals, the government head said today.

The deaths occurred yesterday and today in Huma village in the Ganjam district of the state, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the state’s highest elected official, told reporters in state capital Bhubaneswar.

Huma is located about 120 miles south of Bhubaneswar.

“My government has decided to hold a judicial inquiry into the tragedy and the High Court of the state will be approached to appoint either a sitting or a retired judge to head the commission,” Patnaik said.

Deaths from tainted liquor frequently occur in Indian villages, where locally made brew is spiked with banned methyl alcohol to give it more kick.

Insecticides and other chemicals are also mixed into alcohol by bootleggers, officials say.