One more death due to illicit liquor, toll reaches seven

PRAYAGRAJ : Death toll due to illicit liquor in the Udaipur area of the Pratapgarh district rose to seven on Thursday, as more persons fell ill including some who complained of vision loss.

A resident of Kataria village, Pradeep Kori, his brother Dilip and uncle Siddhnath along with Rampal and Rammilan of Ahar village had died on Wednesday.

Late Wednesday night, Deepak Kori, 18 of Kataria village also fell ill. He was being taken to Lucknow, but he succumbed on the way. Besides, Omprakash and Dharmendra were admitted to a local hospital on Wednesday.

Villagers, Shriram, 28, Ravindra, 25, Rakesh, 38, Dayaram, 18 and Motilal, 35 also fell ill, on Thursday. They were admitted to Sangipur community health centre (CHC). Some of them complained of vision loss, officials said.

Meanwhile, the body of Rajkumar Prajapati of Aharbihar village whose death on Wednesday

was also sent for a postmortem on the insistence of locals, they added. Taking action in connection with the deaths due to liquor, SP-Pratapgarh Akash Tomar suspended SHO of Udaipur police station Rakesh Kumar Prajapati while lekhpal Sanjay Yadav was suspended by district magistrate Nitin Bansal.

Besides, the Excise Inspector of Lalganj area Prabhu Narayan and constable Laxmikant were also suspended by senior excise officials.

On Thursday, police teams seized 290 cartons of illegal liquor kept hidden in a tube well at Balipur village under Kunda police station.