28 people die and 60 others are sick after drinking illegal alcohol fortified with methanol in India
Police said dozens have died after consuming alcohol containing 98% methanol
Gujarat province has banned alcohol since 1960 in tribute to Gandhi
In 2020, 120 people died after drinking fortified alcohol in the Indian state of Punjab
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At least 28 people have died and 60 others have become ill from drinking alcohol fortified with methanol to boost its potency in western India.
The deaths occurred in the Ahmedabad and Botad districts of Gujarat state, where the production, sale and consumption of alcohol is prohibited.
“There was 98 percent methanol in the drink they consumed, that means they only consumed methanol, which has increased the death toll,” said Bhavnagar Ashok Yadav, police inspector general. The Times of India.
Ahmedabad City Crime Department has arrested Narol chemical owner Jayesh Khavadiya and his eight accomplices on suspicion of illegal trade.
The death toll is expected to rise further after several patients arrive for treatment at Ahmedabad’s civilian hospital.
A man is shifted on a stretcher when he arrives in an ambulance at the civilian hospital in Ahmedabad on July 26, 2022, after suffering health problems from consuming illegal liquor
Gujarat province has banned alcohol consumption since 1960 in tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, assassinated in 1948, but hundreds of residents have died over the decades as the illegal liquor trade boomed.
Illegal liquor has also become a hugely profitable industry across India, where bootleggers pay no taxes and sell huge quantities of their product to the poor at a cheap price.
Local police regularly turn a blind eye to the liquor trade as bootleggers pay bribes to carry out their illegal sales in the villages, local Indian media reported.
Dhandhuka MLA Rajesh Gohil had also written to authorities to take action against smugglers in the area.
“There is rampant smuggling of liquor thanks to the nexus of smugglers and the police and patronage provided by the BJP leaders in the state,” senior congressional lawmaker Amit Chavda said, according to The Hinduand adds, “The police regularly take monthly bribes from the smugglers.”
In 2019, at least 133 people died after drinking tainted liquor in two separate incidents in northeastern India’s Assam state.
The victims were mostly tea plantation workers. That same year, another 80 people died from tainted liquor in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
In 2020, another 120 people died after drinking alcoholic beverages in India’s northern state of Punjab.
A man (R) arrives in an ambulance at the civilian hospital in Ahmedabad on July 26, 2022, after suffering health problems from consuming illegal liquor