Cuttack, April 7: The A.S. Naidu Commission, which is probing into the Cuttack-Khurda hooch tragedy, has decided to weigh the options of submitting an interim report to the Odisha government suggesting measures to control illegal sale of drugs containing intoxicating substances.

“The issue will be taken up for a hearing in a sitting fixed for April 22,” secretary of the commission Kasinath Panigrahi told The Telegraph today.

“The commission had received an affidavit along with a petition for an interim report, alleging that the deaths were caused due to consumption of spurious drugs,” he said.

The Odisha government had appointed the commission of inquiry headed by the retired high court judge “to inquire into the circumstances and sequence of events leading to the deaths”.

The commission is expected to report “the source of supply of the product which caused the death and persons or organisations responsible for supply and sale of such product” and “involvement / negligence, if any, of the field officials of the state government in the matter of detection and prevention of such malpractices”.

“Suggestions regarding remedial measures to prevent similar occurrence in future”, is also included in the terms of reference of the commission of inquiry appointed under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, Panigrahi said.

The commission, which had its first sitting on April 4, has so far received 23 affidavits. Among those who had filed the affidavits are the superintendent of excise (Khurda), wives of six victims, two survivors and three lawyers.

Earlier, the Justice A.S. Naidu Commission had visited SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack and HiTech Hospital in Bhubaneswar and collected documents related to both victims who had died and those who had undergone treatment including post-mortem reports, reports on condition of those admitted and medicines administered as part of the treatment.

The commission had also visited the site of the tragedy at Tukulipada, within Cuttack Sadar police station limits, and inspected the spots where excise officials had seized both used and unused bottles of medicinal formulations with high alcohol content and the spot where unused bottles were destroyed, official sources said.

The high court yesterday rejected a public interest litigation related to the case. The court left it for the commission of inquiry probing into it to ascertain the cause of the deaths. The PIL had alleged that spurious liquor had led to the deaths in two districts, Cuttack and Khurda, and claimed compensation for the families of the persons who had died.