India Bootleg Alcohol Death Toll Rises to 98

The death toll from the poisonous bootleg alcohol scandal in the northern Indian state of Punjab increased to 98 Sundays, officials reported.

Police have detained 25 suspects so far for the escalating tragedy that started to come to light late last week, the Indian Press Trust News Agency said.

Hundreds of people in India die every year from illegal alcohol manufactured in backstreet distilleries that sell as low as 10 rupees (13 US cents) per litre, accessible even to the poorest.

The death toll from illegal alcohol had risen to 75 in the Tarn Taran district of Punjab after further examination, Deputy Commissioner Kulwant Singh of the local administration said.

“Several families refused to divulge details of deaths and a few even cremated them. We have come to this number after information gathering,” Singh told AFP Sunday.

Eleven more people were killed in the Gurdaspur area, a local official told AFP. PTI announced on Saturday that the poisonous moonshine killed 12 people in Amritsar as well.

Relatives of the victims mourned Sunday as a regional political group called on the Punjab government to "curb liquor racket in the province" in a series of tweets.

Punjab state chief minister Amarinder Singh said Friday he had ordered a special inquiry into the deaths and “anyone found guilty will not be spared”.

During a separate incident, the authorities in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh reported on Friday that nine people had died from consuming alcohol-based sanitizers.

According to the International Spirits and Wine Association of India, around 40 per cent of the approximately five billion liters of alcohol consumed per year in India was illegally made.

Deaths are frequently reported, with bootleggers often found adding methanol — a highly toxic form of alcohol sometimes used as an anti-freeze — in their brews to increase its strength.

If ingested, methanol can cause blindness, liver damage and death at higher concentrations.

In 2015, more than 100 people died in a slum in Mumbai after drinking illicit moonlight.