Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was admitted to hospital after drinking from a polluted river to prove the water was safe, according to a report by the Indian Express.
In a widely shared video, Mann can be seen drinking a glass of water straight from the Kali Bein, a holy rivulet in Sultanpur Lodhi, in the Kapurthala district in the Indian state of Punjab, last Sunday.
Two days after drinking the water while being cheered on by supporters around him, he was airlifted to hospital with a stomach ache, the Indian Express reports. According to the paper's sources, his admission to hospital was directly related to his drinking the water from the river, which is polluted with sewage from around 73 villages in three separate districts.
Soon after the hospitalization, Mann returned to work. His office denied claims that he had been hospitalized due to drinking water from the river, telling NDTV that Mann had no infection, and had attended the hospital for a routine checkup, before being discharged later that evening.
