One person died and over two hundred others took ill due to suspected adulteration of toddy at a dozen villages of Nawabpet and Vikarabad mandals since Saturday evening.
The Excise officials seized the toddy depot which supplied the drink in the villages and sent samples for investigation. Police said 79 persons were admitted to the government hospital at Vikarabad while others were treated as out-patients for giddiness and frothing at the mouth. The victims were brought in ambulances from villages after health workers conducted door-to-door survey as some of those who consumed the toddy the previous evening started coming to the hospital since early morning.
One person Billapati Krishna Reddy (55) died at Pendlimadugu village in Vikarabad mandal. A toddy depot owned by one Narayana Goud near Chittigadda railway station was supplying toddy to 17 villages in Vikarabad and Nawabpet mandals. Barring five villages, all those who consumed the drink in the remaining 12 villages took ill.