Why Bhavnagar spurious liquor deaths in 'dry' Gujarat are shocking yet hardly surprising

Critics say the dry-state model has not curbed liquor supply so much as pushed it to underground operations and smuggling from neighbouring statesAt least seven people have died since August 18 and 30 are hospitalised after drinking spurious liquor in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district, with police detaining 12 suspected bootleggers as the death toll climbed steadily within 36 hours.Bhavnagar range inspector general of police R.V. Asari said an FIR had been registered against 21 people.Police said the incident occurred at a farm gathering in Kharakadi village in Ghogha taluka, where a group had reportedly consumed counterfeit liquor sold under a popular IMFL (Indian Made Foreign Liquor) brand. District officials said it wasn’t a case of hooch—local chemical-laced brewing operations of the kind that have killed hundreds in past tragedies in ‘dry’ Gujarat.The first death was reported on the evening of August 18, followed by another that night and two more the next day. Preliminary investigation suggests the liquor was supplied from Madhya Pradesh. Police said they had recovered around 90 per cent of the illegal liquor stock moved through the smuggling network and identified the suppliers. The State Monitoring Cell, a specialised wing of the police, has taken over the probe. A forensic team has collected samples from the suspected adulteration site in Ambliwadi area of Vartej in Bhavnagar.The case is shocking but not an isolated one. Bhavnagar and neighbouring Botad were at the centre of the state’s deadliest hooch tragedy in over a decade in July 2022 when poisoning killed 42 people across villages. Bootleggers had mixed water into stolen industrial methyl alcohol and sold it as country liquor for Rs 20 a pouch.Director general of police (DGP) Ashish Bhatia said forensic analysis at the time had confirmed the deceased to have consumed methanol, and police recovered hundreds of litres of the chemical.The tragedy was then described as the state's worst since 2009, when a mass liquor poisoning episode across Ahmedabad killed 148 people over three days. A commission set up afterwards had recommended tighter controls on transport and storage of industrial methanol. Critics claim enforcement of those guidelines has been patchy at best.The recurrence of tragedies points to a structural feature of Gujarat's dry-state model. Since 1960, Gujarat has had a blanket ban on manufacture, sale and possession of alcohol. The policy is tied to Mahatma Gandhi's legacy and was hardened with a 2017 legal amendment prescribing up to 10 years' imprisonment for offences under the Gujarat Prohibition Act of 1949.Critics believe the prohibition has not curbed supply so much as pushed it to underground operations. Bootleggers, they say, smuggle liquor and raw alcohol from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Daman or brew country liquor locally, often cutting it with cheap and lethal industrial methanol to stretch profits. The trade thrives on demand from daily-wage labour who cannot afford or legally access branded liquor.Data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) bears out the scale of this parallel economy. Gujarat has consistently topped the country in cases registered under prohibition and liquor laws—310,000 cases in 2022, up from 283,000 the year before and roughly half of all such cases nationwide in earlier NCRB counts.After the 2022 Botad tragedy, the state's DGP had disclosed that over 250,000 people had been arrested under the Prohibition Act in the preceding 19 months alone. These enforcement numbers are themselves evidence of how entrenched the illicit trade has become despite the ban.Former Congress president and Bhavnagar ex-MP Shaktisinh Gohil alleged that around 250 bottles of the spurious liquor had been sold in the affected area. His party alleged negligence in the handling of the first death, claiming that the body was allowed to be sent to Ujjain without a post-mortem, and that some of the victims had lost their eyesight after consuming the toxic liquor.The Congress accused the BJP of taking bribes and giving a free rein to those running the illicit liquor trade, and asked why none of the BJP’s senior office-bearers had taken moral responsibility and resigned.Subscribe to India Today Magazine- EndsPublished By: Akshita JollyPublished On: Aug 21, 2026 18:31 IST