Holi celebrations turned into tragedy for the families of eight persons in Bihar who lost their lives after consuming spurious liquor in the last 24 hours.

The eight fatalities occurred in two separate incidents, six in Nawada and two in Begusarai.

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The family members of the deceased claimed that they consumed liquor on the day of Holi on Monday after which their health conditions deteriorated by the night.

The first incident was reported from Gondpur and Kharidi Bigha localities under the Nawada Sadar block. However, the district administration of Nawada has not yet confirmed that the deaths were caused by the consumption of spurious liquor.

Two of the deceased have been identified as Dinesh Singh alias Shakti of Kharidi Bigha and Ramdev Yadav of Gondpur. Their family members have claimed that they had consumed liquor on Holi and their health deteriorated at night.

The other deceased persons have been identified as Ajay Yadav (Gondpur), Sailendra Yadav (Gondpur), Loha Singh Thathera (Kharidi Bigha) and Gopal Kumar. They were admitted to nearby private hospitals where they died on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.

“We had admitted Dinesh Singh to a private hospital where he died on Tuesday evening. He had consumed liquor on Holi,” Priyanka Devi, the wife of Dinesh Singh, told media persons in Nawada.

Meanwhile, Prince Tamanna, the district vice president of RJD in Nawada, claimed that eight persons lost their lives in Kharidi Bigha while seven died in the Gondpur locality after consuming spurious liquor.

“The district administration is hiding the facts. The DM, SP and other senior officers are literally mum on the mysterious deaths in these two places. The victims had consumed spurious liquor on Holi.”

In a separate incident, two persons died in Godiyari village in Begusarai district after they reportedly consumed poisonous liquor.

The deceased have been identified as Sakaldev Chaudhery and Raj Kumar Sahani. They were admitted to different hospitals on Tuesday where they died during treatment on Wednesday. Surprisingly, the family members cremated the bodies before post-mortem could be conducted.

The Nitish Kumar government had banned the sale and consumption of liquor in Bihar in April 2016. Despite that, several cases of deaths caused by the consumption of spurious liquor have been reported from different parts of the state over the past few years.

(With IANS inputs)