11 die of alcohol poisoning in 2 days
At least eleven people, including two students of a private university and three staffers of a media organisation, have died allegedly from alcohol poisoning in Dhaka and Bogura district over the last 48 hours.
A dozen other employees of the media organisation have been admitted in hospitals, while two of them are undergoing treatment at the Intensive Care Unit.
Police said they are investigating the incidents.
In Dhaka, around 41 employees of the media organisation went to a resort in Gazipur last Friday for an office tour, according to sources.
Some had alcoholic beverages and got sick. They returned to Dhaka for treatment, a team member, preferring anonymity, told The Daily Star.
After returning to Dhaka, many were hospitalised for poisoning. While undergoing treatment, two employees died on Sunday and another died today, said the team member, who also received treatment after having the drinks.
Around 10 employees of the organisation are still undergoing treatment at different city hospitals and two are in the ICU, said another staffer.
"We are now providing blood samples to check the source of poisoning," he said.
Sources said they had collected alcohol from the city's Gulistan area.
Abu Aziz, officer-in-charge (Investigation) of Kafrul Police Station, told The Daily Star that they received a call about a private organisation employee, who got sick and died in a city hospital while undergoing treatment after returning to Dhaka from an office tour.
"We heard they had liquor and we are suspecting it was poisonous. We sent the victim's body to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College morgue for autopsy," said the OC.
Meanwhile, the morgue sources said they have kept samples from the victims' bodies to find the reason behind their deaths.
In Mohammadpur, a private university student, whose father filed a rape case on Sunday accusing five other students of the same university, allegedly died from alcohol poisoning, police claimed.
On Saturday, an accused in the case, Arafat, 28, also died at Mohammadpur's City Hospital, Harun-Ur-Rashid, deputy commissioner of Tejgaon Division, told The Daily Star.
"We are suspecting both the victim and the accused died from alcohol poisoning. We are now looking into the incidents," he added.
Meanwhile in Bogura, around six people were killed, and five others admitted in hospital, today after allegedly ingesting poisonous liquor on Sunday night, reports our correspondent.
The dead are Alamgir Hosain, 55, Ramjan Ali, 60, Suman Rabidas, 35, Saju Pramanik, 55, Mozahar Ali, 70, and Polash Hossain, 35.
Ayub, 40, who is undergoing treatment, said that they had collected tampered alcohol from a Homeo lab on Saturday night and started feeling sick on Sunday morning.
Suman Rabidas's brother Sujan said his brother bought tampered spirit from a Homeo Hall.
After consuming it, Suman got ill and died, he said.
Md Humayan Kabir, OC of Bogura Sadar police station, said primarily they have found that Suman, Polash and Saju died unnaturally.
"We have come to know that all of them used to take tampered alcohol regularly," he said, adding, "Another victim, Ramjan, died from cardiac arrest in the hospital but we have found that he also used to consume tampered alcohol."
Mozaher Ali had also bought tampered alcohol the night he died.
The OC said they have already started a drive against the Homeo halls that sell rectified spirit to these people. "A case is underway in this regard," he added.
Abdul Wadud, deputy director of Bogura Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital, said a total of five people are now undergoing treatment in the hospital after having toxic liquor.
Regarding death of other victims, he said they would be able to get clearer information after the autopsies.
Comments