Gujarat Hooch Tragedy: Death Toll Climbs To 28, Bootleggers Sold Poisonous Methanol Mixed With Water, Says Police

Gujarat Hooch Tragedy: The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the Ahmedabad crime branch have additionally joined the probe.

An Indian villager the widow of a man who died by consuming home brewed alcohol (Source: File photo/AFP)

New Delhi: At least 28 people have lost their lives due to the consumption of spurious liquor in Gujarat's Botad district, a senior police official said on Tuesday, as reported by news agency PTI. In the preliminary investigation, it has been found that a group of bootleggers including a woman from different villages in Botad had made the alcohol by blending water in with methyl liquor (methanol), which is highly poisonous, and sold it to villagers for Rs 20 per pouch, according to a First Information Report (FIR) registered in the incident.

Gujarat Director General of Police Ashish Bhatia told reporters in Gandhinagar that the Blood tests of the deceased affirmed that they had consumed methanol.

Three FIRs have been registered against 14 main culprits under Indian Penal Code Sections 302 (murder), 328 (causing hurt by poison) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and most of them have been detained, he said.

The matter had become exposed early Monday morning when certain individuals living in Rojid town in Botad and other encompassing towns were referred to government hospitals in the Barvala region and Botad towns after their condition began deteriorating.

28 individuals have so far passed on subsequent to consuming the spurious liquor. Of them, 22 belonged to various villages in the Botad region while six were from three towns in the adjoining Ahmedabad district, Bhatia said.

Additionally, in excess of 45 individuals are presently admitted to medical clinics in Bhavnagar, Botad and Ahmedabad, he said.

"A forensic analysis has established that the deceased consumed methyl alcohol. We have booked 14 people on charge of murder and other offences and already detained most of the accused for further investigation," Bhatia said.

The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the Ahmedabad crime branch have additionally joined the probe.

In the interim, the Gujarat Home Department has framed a three-part board, headed by senior Indian Police Service official Subhash Trivedi, to conduct a detailed inquiry into the incident and present a report in the span of three days, a state government release said.

Police examination has up to this point uncovered that an individual named Jayesh aka Raju had taken 600 liters of methyl liquor from a godown in Ahmedabad where he worked as a manager and afterward offered it to his Botad-based cousin Sanjay for Rs 40,000 on July 25, Bhatia said.

"Despite knowing that it's an industrial solvent, Sanjay sold the chemical to bootleggers from different villages of Botad. These bootleggers mixed water in the chemical and sold it to people as country-made liquor. This led to the death of 28 people," the official said.

Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, who is on a visit to Gujarat where the Assembly polls are due later this year, has also reacted to the incident saying, "A very sad incident came to my knowledge that more than 25 people have died in Bhavnagar after drinking spurious liquor and several others are admitted to the hospitals. I wish them speedy recovery."

"The question is that if Gujarat is a dry state then how is alcohol being sold openly in the state and who is benefitting from this? This is not the first time in Gujarat. Why is the govt not looking after this, or is there some conspiracy behind this?" Kejriwal said in Rajkot.

On Monday, Kejriwal alleged that illegal liquor is being sold in large quantities in Gujarat where prohibition is in place.

(With PTI inputs)