it began with a bootleggers buy one get one free offer and ended with 13 dead in the worst case of arrack poisoning in recent timesthe coastal hamlet of ekkiyar kuppam has been in mourning for the past week none of the fishermen who live here have ventured into the sea wails rend the air as you enter the village thirteen people have died here since saturday after consuming spurious liquor in what is being termed one of the worst hooch tragedies in recent times more than 56 have fallen severely ill and are admitted to hospitals in tamil nadu and puducherrythree men complained of nausea after consuming liquor on saturday night we rushed them to a hospital but when they died on sunday morning we began tracing people who had drunk the same hooch and rushed them to hospitals says m sivakumar brother of one of the victimshe says bootleggers who were active in the village near marakkanam in villupuram for more than a decade advertised an offer of buy one packet of arrack get one free and buy four packets of arrack for 100 a packet costs 40 last week after finding the hooch they had procured was pale yellow instead of colourlessseveral of the villagers blamed the district officials including police for the hooch tragedy some of them alleging that the illicit arrack seized by the prohibition enforcement wing during raids and routine vehicle checks are stored in stations and sold to the bootleggers sometimes the liquor sold to the bootleggers by the police is more than six months old and stored in unhygienic conditions says d arumugam 28 a resident of ekkiyar kuppamwhen i lodged a complaint with the police about bootleggers they took a couple of them to the station for inquiry later the same bootleggers called and threatened me says a fisherman on condition of anonymity whenever police launch a crackdown politicians intervene and help bootleggers thats why the bootleggers switch loyalties to whichever party is in power a former dsp prohibition enforcement wing who served earlier in villupuram district says the hooch business runs parallel to the governmentrun tasmac yielding hundreds of crores of rupees the only solution is for the police to undertake raids and destroy the dens of bootleggers every week he saysthe main hooch suppliers usually distill liquor in the hilly regions of the district as these areas are relatively inaccessible some smuggle liquor from puducherry where the sale of arrack is legal some smuggle arrack distilled illegally in karnataka and andhra pradesh a few suppliers add methanol to increase the drinks potency and dilute the liquor for higher profits they fill them in 250ml bottles procured from tasmac shops and sell them at a huge profit margin they also sell the liquor packed in sachets of 100ml 200ml and 500ml when too much methanol is used the liquor becomes fatal says the dspthe villagers opt for illicit arrack as the nearest tasmac shop is 5km away in marakanam or