Fourteen people died and 20 fell ill after drinking suspected spurious liquor in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district on Monday night.

According to preliminary reports, some residents of Manpur and Pahawali villages in the district drank white-coloured liquor, a senior police officer said.

Later, people in some nearby villages also fell ill after drinking suspected spurious liquor, he said.

An investigation has been ordered and four government officials, including policemen, have been suspended.

This was the second such incident in Madhya Pradesh in the past three months. In October last year, 14 people had died after drinking spurious liquor in Ujjain.

Deputy inspector-general (DIG) Rajesh Hingankar told reporters that a case has been registered under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 34 and 91 of the Excise Act.

A few persons have been rounded up, the DIG said. The post-mortem report is awaited to know if the liquor was poisonous or not, he added.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has ordered the suspension of the Morena district excise officer for negligence. He said “drastic” action would be taken against the guilty.

“The Morena incident is very unfortunate and tragic. The investigation is going on. The district excise officer has been suspended for prima facie negligence. As soon as the remaining facts of the investigation come out, whoever is found guilty will not be spared. We will take drastic action,” Chouhan said in a tweet.

State home minister Narottam Mishra said a police officer had been suspended.

“The incident of deaths caused by drinking poisonous liquor in Morena is very sad and painful. The in-charge of the police station concerned has been suspended.,” he tweeted.

The DIG informed that two more policemen — a sub-inspector and a head constable — had been suspended

State Congress chief Kamal Nath hit out at the Chouhan regime. “The liquor mafia continues to wreak havoc after killing 16 in Ujjain, now they have killed about 10 people in Morena. Shivraj ji, how long will the liquor mafia keep killing people like this? The government should provide proper treatment to the sick and help the affected families in every way possible,” Nath asked in a tweet.