Sitting on a cot in his dingy single-room house in Karunapuram, Mayakannan makes a blank stare at the wall and calls his son for support.
Mayakannan remains the visible reminder of the ill -fated day on June 18, 2024 when a few pouches of moonshine robbed him of his eyesight.
Though the grisly reminder of the tragedy that claimed 69 lives is fading in Karunapuram in Kallakurichi district, the pain isn’t over with survivors who are blind trying to avoid the outside world; families struggling to make ends meet; and widows with dreams they cannot fulfill alone.
The deaths occurred after residents of Karunapuram, mostly belonging to the Scheduled Castes and others from socially and economically disadvantaged groups, who were daily wage labourers and loaders, consumed methanol-infused hooch from a local bootlegger Govindaraj, alias Kannukutty on the night of June 18, 2024.
“It was a mistake. I have realised it now,” said Mayakannan, a load man who has now completely lost his eyesight. The drink (hooch) was easily available in Karunapuram and was sold at a cheap price. I was working as a load man in the local market and drank the brew to drive away exhaustion. The next day (June 19), I felt nausea and blurred vision and my son Murasoli Maran immediately rushed me to the Kallakurichi Government Medical College and Hospital (KGMCH),” Mayakannan recalled.
