Bhavnagar: The death toll from the consumption of spurious liquor in Gujarat's Bhavnagar district rose to nine on Saturday after one more victim succumbed during treatment, while three others remain in critical condition, district officials said.
One of the victims, Hardik Kilji, died on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday, and out of 17 patients who are still undergoing treatment at the civil hospital and six other private facilities in the city, three remain in a critical condition, the district administration stated in an update.
As many as 17 patients, who consumed the liquor containing methanol, a highly toxic substance, have been discharged, while 18 others have sought medical consultation, it said.
Police have arrested 13 of the 21 accused named in the FIR registered at Vartej police station in connection with the hooch tragedy.
Gujarat is a 'dry' state where the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcohol is banned.
According to police, the victims consumed spurious liquor packed in bottles bearing the name of a popular Indian-made foreign liquor brand.
The accused persons have been booked under charges, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder, adulteration and poisoning under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Prohibition Act.
A local court on Thursday remanded them in police custody for 10 days.
The probe has been handed over to the State Monitoring Cell (SMC), a special Gujarat police unit that tracks state-wide illicit liquor and gambling operations.
The illicit hooch was allegedly prepared at the house of one Gautam Solanki, a resident of Vartej, with the help of Raees, who was detained from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh.
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 at Vartej on the night of August 16, but all took ill, and one of them 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, a Forensic Science Laboratory report showed, said officials.
Solanki has informed 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, police later said, died after consuming the liquor that he himself prepared.
Teams have also been sent to Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, from where the raw material was likely supplied to Gujarat, SMC Superintendent of Police Mayursinh Chavda earlier stated. He said that prima facie, most of these people did this for financial gain.
"Investigation is also underway into where the bottle-sealing equipment came from and who supplied it," he said.
