The premise that alcohol-based hand sanitiser is as good as good liquor proved to be fatal. Six persons died in Vani town of Yavatmal district in eastern Maharashtra on Friday night, after they drank hand sanitiser in the absence of normal liquor, sale of which has been banned owing to the pandemic-induced lockdown across the state.
In separate incidents that took place in different parts of Vani town, the persons who consumed hand sanitiser complained of burns in the mouth, stomach, vomiting and giddiness.
Three of the six victims died at local hospitals while the remaining three people died either at their homes or places where they consumed hand sanitiser.
Confirming the development, Yavatmal’s Superintendent of Police Dr. Dilip Bhujbal said: “We have lodged accidental deaths in three cases. In three other cases, the victims did not go to hospital but have died. We are investigating the matter”.
The preliminary investigations by the police have revealed that the victims chose to drink hand sanitiser as they could not get liquor from anywhere as all shops were closed in the town because of lockdown.
Based on the assumption that hand sanitiser contains alcohol, they purchased hand-sanitisers from medical shops and drank them thinking that they would get as “kick” out of it as they would get it with normal liquor. Before long, they complained of burns in the mouth, stomach, vomiting and giddiness.
Within a matter of hours, they succumbed to health complications that they developed after drinking hand sanitiser.