 "30 dead in Gujarat after drinking spurious liquor: A look at the worst hooch tragedies in India")
A total of 30 people have died and 51 are admitted to hospital after drinking spurious liquor in Gujarat’s Botad district.
The matter came to light early Monday morning when some people living in Rojid village in Botad and other surrounding villages were referred to government hospitals in Barvala area and Botad towns after their condition started deteriorating.
The liquor was made from the highly poisonous methyl alcohol, Gujarat Director General of Police Ashish Bhatia told reporters in Gandhinagar.
“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,” Bhatia said.
Let’s take a look at other hooch tragedies across the country:
Punjab, 2020
In late July and early August 2020, nearly 120 people died after consuming spurious liquor in three districts of Punjab – Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran.
According to The Indian Express, 94 were from Tarn Taran alone. It was one of the worst tragedies in Punjab in over three decades in which most of the victims were from Dalit communities.
About 40 people were arrested and several police officers were suspended in relation to the incident.
Uttar Pradesh - Uttarakhand, 2019
More than 110 people died and hundreds of others were hospitalised in one of the worst hooch tragedies in Uttar Pradesh and its neighbouring state, Uttarakhand in February 2019.
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View AllPeople in Saharanpur and Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh, and Haridwar in Uttarakhand fell victim to the spurious liquor. In a response to the incident, the UP government ran a two-day drive against spurious liquor trade and arrested more than 3,000 people. Over 79,000 litres of country-made liquor was also seized across the state.
Assam, 2019
At least 168 people died after drinking toxic bootleg liquor in Assam’s Jorhat and Golaghat districts in February, 2019.
According to Hindustan Times, the incident came to light on 21 February, when 42 people died shortly after consuming liquor. Over the next few days, more and more people succumbed to the spurious alcohol and hundreds of others were hospitalised.
Most of the victims were labourers at tea plantations in these districts. The Assam government later announced an ex-gratia of Rs 200,000 for the dead and Rs 50,000 to those undergoing treatment.
Mumbai, 2015
As many as 103 men died in a span of four days in June 2015 in the Laxmi Nagar slum in Mumbai’s suburb of Malad.
According to The Indian Express, initially it was believed that the victims had drunk spurious liquor, but it was later revealed to be methanol, an industrial solvent, mixed with water, with cardamom added for flavour.
The Maharashtra government announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh for families of those who died.
West Bengal, 2011
At least 167 people died in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district after consuming spurious liquor in December 2011.
The victims, who were primarily rickshaw-pullers and labourers, fell ill after consuming spurious liquor from several illegal joints. Preliminary investigations suggested that the deaths occurred due to methyl alcohol toxicity which led to respiratory and cardiac failure.
The main accused in the incident, Noor Islam Fakir, was given life sentence till death by a court in August last year.
Gujarat, 2009
As many as 148 people died in July 2009 in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad after consuming poisonous homemade alcohol.
A sessions court in 2019 convicted six people including three women in connection with the incident. While three men were awarded imprisonment of 10 years with a fine of Rs 50,000, three women were sentenced for a term of 3.5 years with a fine of Rs 2,500.
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With inputs from agencies_
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