Sagar (Gurpreet Singh) — A suspected hooch tragedy claimed at least nine lives and left multiple individuals sickened after they consumed illicit, poisonous alcohol across two hamlets in the Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh on Sunday. The casualties were reported from Banda tehsil, roughly 30 kilometres away from the district headquarters, as administrative authorities probe whether two other contemporaneous fatalities in the vicinity are connected to the incident.
Contrasting figures emerged from local political representatives, with regional lawmaker Virendra Lodhi asserting that the death toll has reached 11, adding that approximately 25 critically ill patients were transferred from the Banda Civil Hospital to specialized facilities to undergo intensive care. The crisis began unfolding during the early hours of Sunday morning, prompting local health workers to conduct immediate door-to-door physical examinations across the affected villages.
District Collector Pratibha Pal confirmed that initial conversations with community members strongly indicate the consumption of unauthorized bootleg liquor behind the sudden outbreak. Several victims experiencing acute distress, including unrelenting nausea and severe head pain, were admitted to Bundelkhand Medical College and Hospital for immediate treatment. While forensic post-mortem results are still awaited to establish the exact toxicity, administrative and police teams have intensified enforcement drives to identify and dismantle the illicit supply network responsible for distributing the poisonous brew.
