In Kallakurichi town, a hooch tragedy that has killed at least 34 persons from their locality took away Kokila’s both parents Suresh and Vadivukarasi aged 42 and 34 respectively. It is now uncertain on what may be coming for the teenagers who recently lost their parents in the Karunapuram hooch tragedy.
In the past, Mr. Suresh was employed as a painter but could not continue with his job after getting an accident that cost him his right hand. His late wife was she hired to day laborer while they lived together.
“My Papa was addicted to drinking and he began taking illegal brews just recently. On Tuesday morning (June 18, 2024), my father came back after work complaining of pain in the abdomen and blurred vision. The victim was rushed by relatives and neighbors to Government Kallakurichi Medical College Hospital where he eventually passed on though having admitted alive there. With tears rolling down her cheeks, Kokila says “I had begged my father countless times to stop drinking alcohol but all in vain.”
After losing one hand, because it was cut off by an accident; dad would come home from work tired and drink arrack as some kind of relief after a long days hustle. Nevertheless, mom did not have an addiction for alcoholism but worked as daily paid laborer though she suffered from fistula. She accidentally drank some illicit brew that papa had kept inside our house last Tuesday whose first signs she experienced were blurred vision but never mentioned anything about this to anyone else except being taken ill at hospital shortly later where she died before my dad. ”said Kokila. Their children only realized what happened through TV when they returned from school on Tuesday evening. According to her, “We did not know that our parents were no more until when we saw it on television.”
“My family is now broken into pieces; I do not know how two of my brothers studying in class 10 and 9 will survive as well as myself. We have nothing at all to support ourselves because everything that belonged to us was used up for paying EMIs,” she adds.
