Three get drunk, consume poison, die

ROHTAK - Three young friends died in Haryana’s Rohtak district after getting drunk and daring one another to consume a lethal insecticide used by farmers to protect their stored foodgrains.

A fourth man was battling for life in hospital, police said.

The incident took place in Bharan village. The dead men were identified as Krishan Kumar, his namesake Krishan and Jitender Kumar. All of them were unemployed and in their early 20s.

“They were consuming liquor in the fields when one of them produced a packet of Celphos tablets and dared others to taste the pills,” a police officer told IANS.

Under the influence of liquor, all four friends did that — and collapsed. Somehow, Jitender, managed to telephone his family. He survived.