Muniamma, wife of Nagaraj Govindappa who died after drinking toxic arrack, in Bangalore on Monday, and (below) people gather around the remains of a liquor shop after it was demolished. (AP)

Chennai, May 19: An upcoming musician has become the hooch mafia’s latest victim as the toll in a spurious liquor tragedy in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka rose to 62 today.

Shankar, 42, who played the percussion instrument thavil, was clobbered to death for standing up to a hooch-maker at his home in Kulikarai village near Tiruvarur, 325km from Chennai.

The musician, whose career had just taken off, was attacked with logs of wood as he slept outdoors to beat the heat, police said from Tiruvarur, a temple town famous for its thavil and nadaswaram vidwans (maestros).

Officers said Shankar, son of a nadaswaram player, had been resisting attempts by local hooch-maker Murugesan to “flood the villages with illicit arrack”.

Half-a-dozen people in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri, ill after drinking toxic arrack yesterday, died in hospital today, raising the toll to 14 in the district bordering Karnataka. Another 15 are severely ill in hospital, threatened with loss of eyesight.

The victims are mostly daily labourers, who were relaxing after a hard day’s work. Most of them worked across the border in Karnataka, where they had bought the liquor on their way back home.

Karnataka recorded 29 deaths during the day, in Bangalore and Kolar. The state’s death toll is now 48 while several dozen are fighting for their lives in hospital. The arrack sachets are believed to have been distributed by a political party in certain parts of Karnataka, which is in the midst of elections.

The Tamil Nadu police have been struggling to keep Tiruvarur and its neighbourhood free from illicit liquor that frequently turns toxic and kills people.

“Murugesan and his associate Ilayaraja are local rowdies. We have arrested both,” an officer said.

Shankar, who fell unconscious after the attack, died early this morning at the Tiruvarur government hospital. Musicians from various places in Tamil Nadu have arrived in Kulikarai for the funeral.

“Shankar was a thavil vidwan from a family of traditional musicians. His father Gopalakrishnan is a nadaswaram vidwan. They are of modest means. Shankar was just coming into his own as a musician when this tragedy struck,” said fellow thavil player Kumbakonam Murthy.

The reigning king of thavil, Chennai-based Haridwaramangalam A.K. Palanivel, was too shocked to answer questions when he was told of the murder. “I really don’t know what’s happening,” was all he said.

In Bangalore, 22 patients are being treated at the Bowring and Dr Ambedkar hospitals. The city’s 29 dead are all from the Devrajeevanahalli locality. In Kolar, the toll has mounted to 19.

So far, no one has been arrested in connection with the sale of hooch in Bangalore but eight vendors have been picked up in Kolar.

Police and excise officials raided several places in Davangere and Bellary, destroying illicit liquor and questioning people to find out who had sold the toxic arrack that has killed so many people.

The Karnataka goverment has announced Rs 10,000 as immediate compensation to the families of the dead and a separate sum of Rs 1,000 towards funeral expenses.