Irate mobs rampage cheap liquor outlets in Kolkata

Khidderpore (West Bengal), Jan 6 (ANI): Irate mobs rampaged cheap liquor outlets in Kolkata after at least 23 people died drinking spurious liquor.

The mob broke hutments selling cheap country liquor at the Hooghly Chatkal Basti in Khidderpore.

Meanwhile, police said they have arrested six people and continue raiding liquor outlets."We have arrested six people and raided all the outlets selling liquor. We will arrest all of them involved in it," said Debashish Roy, Joint Commissioner of Police, Kolkata.

The victims, mostly labourers, started vomiting and convulsing with stomach pain on Sunday after drinking the liquor in slums around the city's Kidderpore port area along the river Ganges.

In May 2008, at least 180 people died in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the country's' worst bootleg liquor tragedy.

There is a thriving illicit liquor business in India as poor people find it a lot cheaper than legally brewed alcohol. (ANI)