Star Report

At least 12 people, including two students of a private university and three staffers of a media organisation, have died from allegedly consuming counterfeit alcohol in Dhaka and Bogura district over the last 48 hours.

Police said they are investigating the incidents.

In Dhaka, around 41 employees of the media organisation went to a resort in Gazipur last Friday for an office tour, according to sources.

Some had alcoholic beverages and got sick. They returned to Dhaka for treatment, a team member, preferring anonymity, told The Daily Star.

After returning to Dhaka, many were hospitalised for poisoning. While undergoing treatment, two employees died on Sunday and another died yesterday, said the team member, who also received treatment after having the drinks.

Around 10 employees of the organisation are still undergoing treatment at different city hospitals and two are in the ICU, said another staffer.

“We are now providing blood samples to check the source of poisoning,” he said.

Sources said they had collected alcohol from the city’s Gulistan area.

Abu Aziz, officer-in-charge (Investigation) of Kafrul Police Station, told The Daily Star that they received a call about a private organisation employee, who got sick and died in a city hospital while undergoing treatment after returning to Dhaka from an office tour.

“We heard they had liquor and we are suspecting it was tainted. We sent the victim’s body to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College morgue for autopsy,” said the OC.

Meanwhile, the morgue sources said they have kept samples from the victims’ bodies to find the reason behind their deaths.

In Mohammadpur, a private university student, whose father filed a rape case on Sunday accusing five other students of the same university, allegedly died from counterfeit alcohol consumption, police claimed.