More than 140 people killed by adulterated alcohol consumption in India

More than 140 people died after consuming adulterated alcohol during a celebration in a tea plantation in northeastern India.

Illegal alcohol consumption began Thursday night at a party in the Golaghat district, in the state of Assam, in northeastern India, and the dead quickly spread to the neighboring district of Jorhat.

"Up to now, the death toll is 143," said Mukesh Agrawal, deputy director of the police law enforcement department of Assam, at the agency's EFE press.

The Deputy Commissioner of Golaghat District Administration, Dhiren Hazarika, revealed that 85 deaths have occurred in his district, where 160 people are still hospitalized.

At the moment, there are eight inmates linked to the production and sale of adulterated alcohol, explained Hazarika, while a man and his mother, both involved in the sale of alcohol in the tea plantation, have died.

"They brought (the liquor) into containers, but maybe the containers had already been used to transport the insecticide from the tea plantation, which may have made it toxic, and the autopsy will tell us what happened, "Hazarika explained.

This happened after last week confirmed the death of over a hundred people due to adulterated alcohol consumption a few days ago in northern India, where authorities proceeded to about 300 arrests as part of a campaign against this problem. It hits the poorest population.

The tragedy in Assam already exceeds the worst poisoning of recent years in India. In December 2011, more than 130 people lost their lives by ingesting an illegal alcohol acquired near a station in the state of Bengal, in the east of the country.