At least three persons died and several others had to be hospitalised after allegedly consuming illicit liquor at a village in Kaimur district of Bihar on Friday evening, again highlighting the flouting of prohibition in the state.

The incident happened at Kurasan village under Bhabhua police station, around 200km southwest of state capital Patna.

“Three persons from our panchayat have died after consuming liquor while at least three others had to be hospitalised. One of them is being treated at Varanasi. More could have been affected in the incident but we know only about these persons so far,” Kurasan resident Chandan Paswan told The Telegraph.

He claimed the incident revealed that the ban on liquor was being flouted at will in Kaimur district that shares its borders with Uttar Pradesh.

The deceased are Lal Mohar Bind, 30, Sitanagina Bind, 48, and Ramkeshi Kahar, 55, while Dharmendra Kahar, Gorakh Ansari and Santosh Gond are undergoing treatment.

However, the district administration said that only two persons died in the incident while the third had died of some other illness. It also said the post-mortem report was inconclusive about the cause of death.

“As per our knowledge only two persons have died in the incident, and the third could have died due to some other reason as he was not keeping well for some time. One person is undergoing treatment in a hospital,” Kaimur district magistrate Navdeep Shukla told this newspaper.

“The post-mortem report was inconclusive about the cause of death. But the viscera of the deceased has been preserved and will be sent to the forensic science laboratory (FSL) for further investigation,” Shukla added.

A man identified as Munna Musahar has been arrested in connection with the incident. He is accused of brewing the liquor that the group of villagers had consumed. He had been named in two other cases related to illicit liquor in the past.

There have been several reports of hooch tragedies in Bihar since chief minister Nitish Kumar enforced prohibition across the state on April 5, 2016.

In one incident at Gopalganj town in August 2016, 16 people lost their lives.

In the smaller incidents, the post-mortem reports either declared the reasons of death as inconclusive, or the bodies were cremated before the autopsy could be performed.

It is believed that on the one hand the well-oiled and deeply entrenched liquor mafia has been bringing in India-made foreign liquor (IMFL) to Bihar with impunity, while on the other hand, country liquor is also being brewed rampantly across the state.

“Our men are seizing and destroying IMFL and country liquor continuously, but that is just a fraction of the alcohol that is being supplied to different parts of the state,” a senior police officer said on the condition of anonymity.