Five more mysterious deaths in Siwan

Patna, March 21 (IANS) After 37 lives were lost in Bhagalpur, Banka and Madhepura, five mysterious deaths were reported from two villages in Siwan district on Sunday night.

The victims belong to Sarawe and Chotpur village under Mufassil police station of the district. As per the villagers, they had consumed liquor on Saturday to celebrate Holi. However, the families of the deceased are tight-lipped.

After complaining of stomach ache, low visibility and vomiting since Saturday, they succumbed last night.

Police and civil administration of Siwan are camping in these two villages. The bodies had not been cremated till the filing of this report. The villagers are claiming that police officials present were pressuring the deceased's families to cremate the bodies without post-mortems.

Earlier, 37 persons from Bhagalpur, Banka and Madhepura districts had died in mysterious circumstances Since Saturday morning.

Subrat Kumar Sen, the district magistrate of Bhagalpur district said: "We have taken the statements of the family members of deceased and two of them claimed that they died due to heart attack while others are allowed to go for post-mortem. One person is currently undergoing treatment and his statement is awaited."

Tejashwi Yadav, the RJD leader slammed Nitish Kumar government for its failure to implement liquor ban successfully in the state.

"I don't know whether liquor is going on or not in Bihar but deaths due to poisonous liquor are continuously taking place here and Nitish Kumar has completely failed to prevent deaths. 42 persons of four districts lost their lives due to poisonous liquor in the last two days. Over 200 persons died due to poisonous liquor in the last 6 months," Tejashwi said.

"Chief minister, state government, bureaucrats, and the system are completely corrupt and unsuccessful. Due to their failures, liquor is available everywhere in the state. Nitish Kumar is searching liquor through drones, helicopters, motor boats, but the fact of the matter is liquor is available in every locality and villages of Bihar," Tejashwi added.