As many as 42 people have died after consuming spurious liquor in Gujarat's Botad district, a police official said on Wednesday, 27 July.
Out of the deceased, 31 belonged to different villages in Botad, and nine were natives of the neighbouring Dhandhuka taluka in Ahmedabad district, the official of the Botad police control room said.
Nearly 50 people have been admitted to hospitals in Bhavnagar, Botad, and Ahmedabad, he said.
Around 41 of those 50 patients are at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital and the common symptom in all of them is blurred vision. While three out of them are in critical condition, the rest are stable, the Medical Superintendent of the hospital told news agency ANI.
The Botad and Ahmedabad Police registered three First Information Reports (FIRs) on Tuesday against nearly 20 culprits under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 302 (murder), 328 (causing hurt by poison), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy). They have arrested at least 15 of them so far.
15 Key Accused Held So Far
Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi addressed a press conference in Gandhinagar on Wednesday and stressed that the police will file a charge sheet in the incident in the next 10 days and the trial will be held in a fast-track court.
He said, "42 citizens have died so far after consuming spurious liquor laced with highly toxic methyl alcohol in Gujarat's Botad district two days back. 15 key accused, right from the one who acquired the chemical and those who sold the liquor to people, have already been arrested."
Sanghavi added that the government will appoint a special public prosecutor to fight the case and that the state Home Department will tighten its rein over the production and sale of methyl alcohol in Gujarat.
Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MPs staged a protest over the Gujarat hooch tragedy near the Gandhi statue during the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament on Wednesday.
The Vadodara Rural Police on Wednesday nabbed Jatubha Rathod, one of the accused named in an FIR registered by Barvala Police in Botad, who has been on the run since he was booked, an official said.
Wife of a person whose health deteriorated said:
"He drank in the evening. In the morning, he started vomiting and then fell down. We first took him to Barvala to give him medicines, then we went to Botad to give him medication."
The Incident
The incident came to light early Monday morning after some residents of Barvala taluka’s Rojid village in Botad district and some other surrounding villages were referred to government hospitals in Barvala and Botad after their health started deteriorating a few hours after consuming the spurious alcohol.
Primary investigations by the police have revealed that some small-time bootleggers of different villages of Botad district had made spurious liquor by mixing water with methyl alcohol or methanol, a highly poisonous industrial solvent, and sold it to villagers for Rs 20 per pouch.
According to police, forensic analysis has established that the victims consumed methyl alcohol.
Meanwhile, the Gujarat Home Department has formed a three-member committee, headed by senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Subhash Trivedi, to conduct a detailed inquiry into the incident and submit a report within three days, as per a government release.
The investigation revealed that a person named Jayesh aka Raju had stolen 600 litres of methyl alcohol from a godown in Ahmedabad, where he worked as a manager, and then sold it to his Botad-based cousin Sanjay for Rs 40,000 on 25 July, PTI reported.
Despite knowing that it was an industrial solvent, Sanjay sold the chemical to bootleggers of different villages of Botad.
These bootleggers mixed water in the chemical and sold it to people as countrymade liquor, police said.
Arvind Kejriwal Demands Probe
Calling the incident "unfortunate," Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is on a Gujarat visit, alleged that illegal liquor is being sold in large quantities in Gujarat where prohibition is in place. He alleged that people selling illicit liquor are enjoying political protection and demanded a probe into the "trail" of money generated by selling booze.
The Gujarat Prohibition Act, earlier known as the Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949, empowers the police to arrest a person for purchasing, consuming, or serving alcohol without a permit, with punishment ranging from three months to five years in prison. It also penalises the transporting of liquor.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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