Patna,(BiharTimes): Former Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi claimed on Tuesday that the cause of death of 10 people in two villages of East Champaran district is consumption of hooch and not mysterious disease as is being propagated by the state government.

Talking to the media he accused the Nitish government of suppressing facts.

Political observers are of the view that Modi may be right as he had a large experience of the state government twisting facts. Last winter many people died in hooch tragedies in Ara, Gaya and Patna City. In Patna City the district administration attributed it to the cold wave when the fact was that there was absolutely no cold wave in the early days of December last year. Local people of Patna City disputed the state government’s version.

Ironically, the incident took place in the Assembly constituency of the then road construction minister and senior BJP leader, Nand Kishore Yadav, but then even he did not say anything on the issue.

Meanwhile, with the death of one more person on Monday night the death toll in this “mysterious disease” in Sugauli Nagar Panchayat in East Champaran district rose to 10.

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) P K Mandal said 35-year-old Jainarayan Raut succumbed at his home on Monday night. A post mortem was carried out, but it failed to specify the cause of his death.

Thus in all 10 people, including two women, had died in Bahrupia and Phulwaria villages on Sunday and Monday following what the government claims the outbreak of the “mysterious disease”.

The civil surgeon of East Champaran, Meera Verma, said that the autopsy report was awaited to ascertain the cause of death of the victims. The viscera of the bodies will be kept at hospital for further investigation, she added.