Approximately 130 people have died and it is estimated there is a number more than 200 being treated in hospital after drinking toxic bootleg alcohol.

In the state of Assam on Sunday 24th, February 35 people were reported dead after an estimated number of 100 people died in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand [northern-eastern India].

The police officials have arrested ten people over the bootleg drink and an inquiry has been ordered into the tragedy. The death toll is thought to be the highest since a 2011 case in West Bengal, where more than 170 people died as a result of bootleg alcohol.

The first bootleg alcohol victims died on Thursday, according to the administrator of the Golaghat district in Assam, Dhiren Hazarika. Soon after that police had found the home where the toxic liquor was being produced and had recovered one and a half litres of it.

Doctors at the hospitals were confused by the ingredients used in illegal alcohol, which has caused organ failure and an expert team from Guwahati is being brought in analyse the drink.

Deaths from illegally produced alcohol are common in parts of rural India because of its cheap price. Bootleggers often add methanol into the drink- a highly toxic form of alcohol. If ingested in small quantities, methanol can still cause blindness, liver damage, and death.

State police said two department officials were suspended consequently as a result of failing to take necessary precautions over the sale of the alcohol.