The victims had bought the country-made liquor from a licensed shop, officials said.

In yet another tragedy linked to spurious liquor in Uttar Pradesh, 18 people have died in Aligarh district since Thursday. Five officials, including the district excise official, have been suspended over the series of deaths that have taken place in the last 24 to 36 hours in the western Uttar Pradesh district, officials said. The victims had bought the country-made liquor from a licensed shop, they said.

The fatalities are likely to rise as more bodies have been brought to the district hospital for autopsies, said sources.

The doctors carrying out the postmortem have said that they have performed autopsies on 22 toxic liquor victims since yesterday. There is, however, no official word on it so far.

The police have so far arrested five accused in the case while two main accused, who reportedly supplied and sold the liquor from the government-licensed shop, are still on the run.

Incidents of death due to spurious liquor consumption have been reported from Uttar Pradesh in alarming frequency. Around ten to 15 deaths have been reported from the BJP-ruled state in the last one year, as per reports.

Earlier on Tuesday, the police in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district had arrested 85 people and seized 1,700 litres of illicit liquor during an anti-hooch campaign – “Operation Prahaar”.

”Operation Prahaar” was launched after several died and another half a dozen fell ill allegedly after consuming spurious liquor in Hathras in April.