Illegally produced alcoholic beverage kills at least 29 people and dozens are hospitalized in southern India

NEW DELHI — At least 29 people have died and dozens have been hospitalized after drinking illegally manufactured alcoholic beverages in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, authorities told local media on Thursday.

The incident took place in the state’s Kallakurichi district, where more than 100 people are being treated at various hospitals, the district’s top official MS Prasanth told news agency Press Trust of India. He added that the number of people in critical condition continues to change, suggesting the death toll could rise.

Ambulances, doctors and specialists from nearby areas were sent to the district.

State Chief Minister MK Stalin said in a post on social media platform X that those involved in the crime have been arrested and action has also been taken against authorities who failed to prevent it. “These crimes that ruin society will be suppressed with an iron fist,” he added.

Deaths from illegally produced alcohol are common in India, where the poor cannot buy licensed brands in government-run stores. Illicit alcoholic beverages, which are often spiked with chemicals such as pesticides to increase potency, have also become an extremely profitable industry, as bootleggers pay no taxes and sell huge quantities of their product to the poor at cheap prices.

In 2022, more than 30 people died in the eastern Indian state of Bihar after allegedly drinking contaminated alcoholic beverages sold without authorization. At the beginning of that same year, at least 28 died for drinking altered alcoholic beverages in the state of Gujarat. And in 2020, at least 120 people died after drinking contaminated alcohol in the northern Indian state of Punjab.