Bhavnagar, Aug 25 (PTI) Gujarat Police have arrested 13 more persons in connection with the hooch tragedy in Bhavnagar, including a man from Madhya Pradesh who played a major role in the manufacture of the spurious liquor that claimed 13 lives, officials said on Tuesday.
With this, the total number of arrests in the tragedy that unfolded last week has risen to 27.
Gujarat is a ‘dry’ state where the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcohol is banned.
Thirteen persons died after consuming spurious liquor packed in bottles with the label of a popular Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) brand.
According to officials, 67 persons had consumed the liquor containing methanol, a highly toxic substance.
“After thorough interrogation of the accused arrested earlier, the police’s State Monitoring Cell (SMC) arrested 13 more accused on Sunday and remanded them in police custody till September 2,” a police release said.
While a majority of those arrested are from Bhavnagar, one Anand Chhandi, a resident of Rajgarh district in MP, was brought to Bhavnagar from Ujjain to allegedly manufacture spurious liquor, and he has a “very big role” in the conspiracy. He also allegedly played a major role in procurement of chemicals used in the manufacturing process, the police said.
As part of the investigation, the SMC seized bottles of liquor containing poisonous chemicals and earlier arrested 14 persons involved in the crime.
As many as 16 teams of SMC, a special Gujarat police unit that tracks state-wide illicit liquor and gambling operations, spread out in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat to gather evidence, the release said.
The police are investigating the source of methanol and other chemicals, the transporters involved, and all those linked to procuring and moving raw materials used in manufacturing spurious liquor.
The hooch was allegedly prepared at the house of Gautam Solanki, a resident of Vartej in Bhavnagar, with the help of Raees, who was apprehended from Ujjain in MP.
The toxic liquor was packed and sealed in bottles carrying the label of an IMFL brand and supplied to bootleggers for distribution. The matter came to light after three friends consumed the liquor in Vartej on the night of August 16. All of them took ill, and one of them later died.
The examination of the blood sample of the first victim, Upendrasinh Gohil, showed the presence of methanol. More deaths followed, and many more were hospitalised with severe complications.
The liquor contained 38.59 per cent methanol and 0.94 per cent ethanol, as per the Forensic Science Laboratory report.
Solanki told the police that he came in contact with Raees through a common friend. Raees and Zuber, his assistant from Ujjain, procured raw materials from Ahmedabad and prepared the toxic liquor at Solanki’s residence, according to the FIR registered at Vartej police station on August 19.
They involved Narendra Yadav, also from Madhya Pradesh, in the illegal business. Yadav died after consuming the liquor that he himself prepared, according to the police.
Teams have also been sent to Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, from where the raw material was likely supplied to Gujarat. Prima facie, most of these people did this for financial gain, according to police.
The police are also looking into where the bottle-sealing equipment came from and who supplied it.
The accused persons have been booked on several charges, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder, adulteration and poisoning, under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Prohibition Act. PTI KA PD GK
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