Hooch bottles lie scattered after the cop crackdown on Sunday. A Telegraph picture

At least 10 people died and seven took ill in the port area in the past 24 hours apparently after drinking spurious liquor. Police suspect five more might have died since January 1.

“Hooch is suspected to be the cause of the deaths. We are awaiting post-mortem reports for confirmation,” said Jawed Shamim, the deputy commissioner of police (detective department). Most of the victims were labourers in a jute mill in the locality while a few earned their living by doing odd jobs.

The cops on Sunday smashed 12 illegal liquor dens in Kidderpore and destroyed 80 litres of hooch. Three men and two women were arrested on the charge of being linked with the racket that ran the trade.

This is the second hooch tragedy in the city in just over four years. In November 2004, 35 people had died after consuming spurious liquor in Tangra.

While the liquor dens were being destroyed, residents alleged that the racket, which had a captive clientele among labourers, had flourished with the patronage of political leaders and the police. Ramprasad Shaw, a resident of Sonai Bustee, said a jute mill colony where six liquor dens were located was within a stone’s throw of the office of deputy commissioner (port) Anand Kumar.

Reacting to the charge, police commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti, who visited the area in the afternoon, said a team comprising Kumar and joint commissioner (armed police) Debashis Roy would report within 24 hours whether the cops were involved in the racket.

No one from the locality informed the police about the deaths. “We came to know about the tragedy while probing the deaths of Prakash Rao and Jaysingh Ram, who lived in Sonai Bustee,” said joint commissioner (administration) Pradip Chatterjee.

Jaysingh, 57, was seen drinking with his mother Sushila on Saturday night. “Both were vomiting blood since morning. We took them to the ESI Hospital in Maniktala where they died,” said Jaysingh’s unemployed son Binod.

While inquiring about the deaths of the Rams and Rao, the cops learnt of another hooch victim, Hemati Das, 22, whose body had by then been taken to Keoratala burning ghat. The sleuths rushed to the crematorium and seized the body for post-mortem. The names of the other victims then started tumbling out. “Among them, Manik Shaw died on January 1,” said an officer.

The victims were mostly residents of Sonai Bustee, Jain Kunj and Hooghly Jute Mill Colony. Those who took ill are being treated at SSKM, Sambhunath Pandit and ESI hospitals.

Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee and mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya visited the shanties.