Jun 19 2015 : The Times of India (Mumbai)
14 die after drinking hooch in Malwani
Nitasha Natu, Sumitra Deb Roy & Ahmed Ali
|
Mumbai:
TNN
|
At least 14 people died on Thursday and over 20 are admitted in hospital, many in a critical condition, after consuming spurious liquor in Malwani's Gaondevi area.The crime branch picked up two suspected hooch smugglers late on Thursday . Shankar and Raju Langda allegedly brought it from Virar-Vasai by train and sold it in pouches of 250ml costing Rs 20 to 30 each. Laxmi alias Akka, a middle-aged woman, is absconding. Cops suspect methanol poisoning in the adulterated liquor proved fatal.
Residents of Laxmi Nagar slums who had the liquor on Wednesday night woke up with complaints ranging from breathlessness to acute burning sensation and were rushed to Kandivli's Shatabdi Hospital on Thursday . But most could not even make it there. Hospital medical su perintendent Dr Krishna Pimple said six persons have died in the hospital; two on the way and four on admission.Till late on Thursday , the flow of patients to the hospital had not stopped. The deaths triggered panic, leading to more people rushing in.
CM Devendra Fadnavis has ordered a probe. The Malwani police have registered a case under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 328 (administering dangerous substance) and 34 of the IPC.
In the last major hooch tragedy in the city , 87 persons had died and 285 had to be admitted to hospital after having methanol-laced hooch in Vikhroli and Mahalaxmi on December 23, 2004.
The Malwani victims are largely a mix of auto drivers, construction workers and small-time employees mostly from Gulbarga in Karnataka.At the slum, Sonu Kanojia was distraught. Her older son Dinesh, 38, was dead and younger son Kamlesh, 36, was in hospital. The siblings woke up with a severe burning sensation in the stomach on Thursday . In the next couple of hours, Dinesh's symptoms grew worse; he vomited several times.Kamlesh, who also started experiencing discomfort, rushed his brother to hospital and needed to be admitted himself. Dinesh succumbed soon, while Kamlesh is fighting for life in ICU.
“It seemed like their bodies were on fire. They were seething in pain and rolling on the floor,“ said Kamlesh's wife Anita. Dinesh's wife was inconsolable as he was the breadwinner for the family and is survived by four daughters and a son.
The family of autorickshaw driver Munna Shaikh, related to Langda, is numb with shock.“We don't know what went wrong. My father started vomiting on Thursday and died,“ said Shaikh's daughter Ameena, who has two siblings.
Both the families claimed the brothers and Shaikh had bought liquor from Langda. After police chief Rakesh Maria transferred the case to the crime branch, fingers were being pointed at the Malwani police. Sources said they had either turned a blind eye to the bootleggers or may not have taken them seriously .
State excise commissioner Shamsunder Shinde and joint commissioner of police (law and order) Deven Bharti reached the slum on Thursday night to take stock of the situation. The police have sent samples of the liquor to the forensic science laboratory .
Despite continuous raids, bootleggers manage to find se cret or abandoned places to manufacture the spurious liquor, complained Shinde. “Often they smuggle the liquor from outside the city and adulterate it to double its quantity . They may have mixed some deadly methanol or spirit which acts as poison,“ he added. Excise officials said in Maharashtra, 33 crore litres of country liquor is consumed every year and only 20% of it is made illegally.
Residents of Laxmi Nagar slums who had the liquor on Wednesday night woke up with complaints ranging from breathlessness to acute burning sensation and were rushed to Kandivli's Shatabdi Hospital on Thursday . But most could not even make it there. Hospital medical su perintendent Dr Krishna Pimple said six persons have died in the hospital; two on the way and four on admission.Till late on Thursday , the flow of patients to the hospital had not stopped. The deaths triggered panic, leading to more people rushing in.
CM Devendra Fadnavis has ordered a probe. The Malwani police have registered a case under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 328 (administering dangerous substance) and 34 of the IPC.
In the last major hooch tragedy in the city , 87 persons had died and 285 had to be admitted to hospital after having methanol-laced hooch in Vikhroli and Mahalaxmi on December 23, 2004.
The Malwani victims are largely a mix of auto drivers, construction workers and small-time employees mostly from Gulbarga in Karnataka.At the slum, Sonu Kanojia was distraught. Her older son Dinesh, 38, was dead and younger son Kamlesh, 36, was in hospital. The siblings woke up with a severe burning sensation in the stomach on Thursday . In the next couple of hours, Dinesh's symptoms grew worse; he vomited several times.Kamlesh, who also started experiencing discomfort, rushed his brother to hospital and needed to be admitted himself. Dinesh succumbed soon, while Kamlesh is fighting for life in ICU.
“It seemed like their bodies were on fire. They were seething in pain and rolling on the floor,“ said Kamlesh's wife Anita. Dinesh's wife was inconsolable as he was the breadwinner for the family and is survived by four daughters and a son.
The family of autorickshaw driver Munna Shaikh, related to Langda, is numb with shock.“We don't know what went wrong. My father started vomiting on Thursday and died,“ said Shaikh's daughter Ameena, who has two siblings.
Both the families claimed the brothers and Shaikh had bought liquor from Langda. After police chief Rakesh Maria transferred the case to the crime branch, fingers were being pointed at the Malwani police. Sources said they had either turned a blind eye to the bootleggers or may not have taken them seriously .
State excise commissioner Shamsunder Shinde and joint commissioner of police (law and order) Deven Bharti reached the slum on Thursday night to take stock of the situation. The police have sent samples of the liquor to the forensic science laboratory .
Despite continuous raids, bootleggers manage to find se cret or abandoned places to manufacture the spurious liquor, complained Shinde. “Often they smuggle the liquor from outside the city and adulterate it to double its quantity . They may have mixed some deadly methanol or spirit which acts as poison,“ he added. Excise officials said in Maharashtra, 33 crore litres of country liquor is consumed every year and only 20% of it is made illegally.
