The Valsad police have arrested 19 people, including a police sub-inspector and three constables, for violating liquor law in Gujarat's Valsad.
Manoj Singh, SDPO, Valsad told ANI, "We raided a birthday party and arrested 19 people and seized 18 bottles of wine. A case has been registered. Further legal action is being taken."
Gujarat hooch case
The hooch tragedy came to light early Monday morning when some people living in Rojid village of Botad and other surrounding villages were referred to government hospitals in Barvala area and Botad towns with deteriorating health condition.
Primary investigations by 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.
A police official said on Wednesday that the death toll due to the consumption of spurious liquor in Gujarat's Botad district has reached 40 with seven more people succumbing in the last 12 hours.
The official of the Botad police control room said that out of the 31 deceased, 31 belonged to different villages in Botad and nine were natives of neighbouring Dhandhuka taluka in Ahmedabad district.
He said nearly 50 people were still admitted to hospitals in Bhavnagar, Botad and Ahmedabad.
The Botad and Ahmedabad police on Tuesday registered three First Information Reports (FIRs) against nearly 20 culprits under Indian Penal Code Sections 302 (murder), 328 (causing hurt by poison) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and have arrested at least 10 of them so far.
