Kallakurichi hooch tragedy: Here's What What We Know So Far

Since June 19 afternoon, at least 52 persons have lost their lives in the Kallakurichi district of the State after they consumed illicit liquor on Tuesday evening.

Here’s what happened so far:

• Karunapuram colony is dominated by daily-wage laborers who fell for “cheap liquor” that was being sold for anywhere between Rs 10 to Rs 50 in packets since the minimum price of a liquor bottle sold in state-owned TASMAC was over Rs 100.

• Most of the victims consumed the spurious liquor at Karunapuram in Kallakurichi on Tuesday night. On Wednesday night, they were admitted at the Kallakurichi Government Medical College and Hospital, hospitals in Selam, Villupuram, and the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry. The victims began experiencing symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, stomach ache, and irritation in the eyes.

Read also: Kallakurichi: At Least 29 Dead, Over 60 Hospitalised After Consuming Illicit Liquor Tamil Nadu

• Several of the victims succumbed on Wednesday night. Following the tragic incident, the DMK government immediately suspended the Kallakurichi Superintendent of Police and the transferred the District Collector.

• From the preliminary investigation, the presence of methanol was found in the samples of arrack seized during the probe.

• Chief Minister MK Stalin announced that 10 lakh ex gratia would given to the families of each of the deceased and 50,000 to those undergoing treatment.

• A total of 143 people were admitted to hospitals, and 105 are still undergoing treatment. The main suspect in the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy, Govindaraj, and his wife Vidya were arrested for the illegal sale of liquor bottles. The CB-CID has also taken the prime suspect Chinnadurai, who produced the illicit arrack, from Cuddalore district into custody.

• The authorities seized about 200 litres of illicit arrack and the analysis disclosed the presence of deadly methanol.

• Kamal Haasan, and Thalapathy Vijay and many others in the film industry expressed their condolences on their respective social media accounts. Offering condolences Kamal Haasan appealed to the Tamil government to curb the selling of illicit liquor and also to set up rehabilitation centers to help drug addicts.

• In the latest development to the incident, the second day of the Tamil Nadu Assembly session began in Chennai on Friday with a ruckus as AIADMK legislators sporting black clothes raised slogans inside the House.

Read also: Dry Day Alert: Liquor Ban For Two Days In June First Week In Kerala

• Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu BJP President Annamalai has written a letter to the Union Minister Amit Shah requesting a CBI inquiry.

• The families of the deceased have come up claiming that the sale of the illicit liquor happened in the prime areas of the town with the knowledge of the local police who operate under the direction of local political leaders belonging to the DMK.