Twenty-one people have died in India and 10 are in the hospital after drinking tainted liquor, authorities said on Tuesday, updating the death toll. Nine people were in custody, police said.
Hundreds of people die every year in India from drinking cheap alcohol made in backstreet distilleries. Bootleggers sell vast quantities at cut rates to the poor, without paying taxes to the government.
To increase its potency, the liquor is often spiked with methanol that can cause blindness, liver damage and death.
The latest incident happened late on Monday after villagers in the Amritsar district, in the northern state of Punjab, drank liquor laced with methanol.
"Now death toll is 21. And 10 admitted in hospitals," a public relations officer for the Amritsar district said in a statement.
Relatives grieve after the death of a man who consumed tainted liquor at Marari Kalan village on the outskirts of Amritsar on May 13, 2025.
NARINDER NANU/AFP via Getty Images
Nine people have been arrested, Punjab police said in a post on social media.
An investigation is underway "to uncover the entire modus operandi and to bring all involved to justice," the post said.
Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann said those responsible would be punished.
"We all stand united in grief — and in our resolve to ensure justice is served and such tragedies are prevented in the future," Punjab police said.
Last year, 53 people were killed after drinking moonshine in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
In December 2022, more than 30 people died in the eastern Indian state of Bihar after consuming tainted alcohol. In July 2002, 28 people died and 60 became ill after drinking bootleg liquor in the western state of Gujarat, where the sale of alcohol is banned.
Last November in Laos, six tourists died from suspected methanol poisoning, state media reported.