YAMUNANAGAR, Aug 24: While the district administration is busy denying reports that spurious liquor had killed 10 persons in Bilaspur and Chhahrauli villages in Yamunanagar district in Haryana, residents admit in private that family members of the deceased are scared of telling the truth about the exact cause of death of their kin.

The district administration claimed that only three persons had died after consuming hooch, and that the seven other deaths reported in the area had occurred due to other reasons.

Police officers, meanwhile, arrested seven persons allegedly involved in preparing and selling the lethal drink. A team of civil and police officials also visited the affected families on Saturday. Family members of Raj Kumar of Chholi village, a hooch tragedy victim, claimed that he had died due to injuries sustained in a road accident. Relatives of Pannu Ram, another alleged hooch victim of the village, said that the deceased had been suffering from tuberculosis for the past several years and had succumbed to it on August 16.

However,a hooch tragedy victim's uncle, admitted that most deaths were caused by spurious liquor.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.