Four killed in Uttar Pradesh hooch tragedy

LUCKNOW - Four people were killed and 10 others fell ill after consuming illicit liquor in Uttar Pradesh’s Allahabad district, police said Saturday. Two people have been detained.

Several locals in the Mahewa village consumed the spurious liquor Friday night and their condition started deteriorating Saturday morning. Four of them died later, police said.

“Of those being treated in a hospital, the condition of six is stated to be serious,” police Inspector Nihal Singh told reporters Saturday in Allahabad, some 200-km from Lucknow.

Preliminary investigations indicated that the villagers got the liquor from Shir Charan, a villager who is absconding, police said.

“We have detained two associates of Shir Charan to ascertain his whereabouts,” said Singh.