Mumbai (AsiaNews / Agencies) - New Delhi police have arrested a man for selling a poisonous liquor that, in recent days, killed more than 100 people in Mumbai. According to police, Mohammed Latif Khan, 26, smuggled alcohol from the state of Gujarat and then delivered it to local shopkeepers. After the first victims died, he fled from the metropolis of Maharashtra to hide in a friend's house in the Indian capital.
Meanwhile, the death toll has exceeded 102 deaths. Another 40 people are still admitted in various hospitals in Mumbai. Seven people, including two women, have been arrested for poisoning.
"During the interrogation - a police officer told The Indian Express - we learned from the suspect that the illegal liquor came from the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat."
Gujarat is the only Indian state where alcohol is prohibited by law, in all its forms.
Police believe that the deaths were caused by poisoning with methanol, but the coroner's report will give official confirmation. Typically these liquors are homemade and corrected with methanol and industrial spirit, a mixture that can lead to seizures, vomiting and death. Given the very low cost (about 10 rupees, a few cents of euro), it is very common among poor people and day laborers.
In India, poisoning and death from consumption of poor quality liquor is not a rare event. In 2011, nearly 170 people died in West Bengal; at least 30 in Uttar Pradesh in 2009; more than 100 in Gujarat again in 2009. This is the most serious incident for the city of Mumbai since 2004, when 87 people died.