Kheda Ayurvedic syrup deaths: Autopsy report indicates death due to methyl alcohol, 5 booked

The FIR filed at the Nadiad Rural police station late on Friday evening, based on the complaint of police inspector D N Chudasma of the Nadiad Rural police station, has named five people as the accused — the supplier of the syrup Yogesh Sindhi, provision store owner Narayan alias Kishor Sodha and his brother Ishwar, as well as two Vadodara residents Nitin Kotwani and Bhavesh Sevakani, who are the distributors of the syrup and handed over the batch of bottles to Sindhi.

The Kheda district police, which has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case, said the syrup bottles contained bogus manufacturing and marketing labels as well as misleading contents printed on them, prompting sections of forgery to be invoked against the accused in the FIR.

The FIR stated that while five people died between November 26 and 28, three families cremated the bodies of the victims “without informing the police”. The FIR identified the two deceased from Bilodra as Natu Raman Sodha and Arjun Mangal Sodha, whose deaths were investigated by the police, as well as survivors Baldev Ramesh Sodha and Sankal Sodha, who is the father of accused Kishore and Ishwar Sodha, and currently under treatment at the Ahmedabad civil hospital.

The FIR stated that three other people who died on November 28 were Ashok Sodha of Bilodra, Mitesh Chauhan of Vadadla village in Mahemdavad taluka and Alpesh Sodha of Bagdu village in Mahuda taluka. “The families of all three deceased cremated the deceased without informing the police,” the FIR stated.

The FIR noted that the victims had reported symptoms of uneasiness, dizziness and chest pain while being admitted for treatment. It detailed the case of Natu Sodha, whose family cooperated in the police investigation as well as the case of accused Kishore and Ishwar Sodha’s father Sankal.

It stated that in the case of Sodha, the provisional cause of death ascertained in the postmortem conducted at Nadiad civil hospital was “cardiac arrest due to methyl alcohol poisoning”.

The FIR further stated, “The FSL report of Natu Sodha indicated 0.1206% of methyl alcohol while Sankal Sodha’s (under treatment) report has indicated the presence of 0.0467% methyl alcohol. Both blood sample reports have indicated no presence of ethyl alcohol… The victims had purchased the bottles of Kal Meghasava for Rs 130 from Kishore Sodha’s store in Bilodra village.”

The FIR also detailed the case of Baldev Sodha, who survived after receiving treatment at the local hospital and has helped the police in their investigation. The FIR stated that following the deaths of Natu, Ashok and Arjun, Kishore and Ishwar Sodha tried to destroy five remaining bottles of the syrup while Sindhi also set fire to the unsold bottles of Kal Meghasava in his godown.

The FIR said, “The police recovered three bottles of Kal Meghasava from the bushes around the shop run by Kishore Sodha, two of which were empty while the third one had about 20ml of the syrup. The bottles contained a label Kal Meghasava Asava Arishta with details of the marketing company named Healthcare Ayurveda and an address of Juhapura Road in Ahmedabad as well as details of the Manufacturing license of the manufacturer NI Life Ltd, located in Karnol.. However, the Ahmedabad Rural LCB police verified the address of Juhapura of Healthcare Ayurveda and found that no such office was running from the premises. The address of NI Life as Karnol, HIDC was also fake.”

Kheda Superintendent of Police Rajesh Ghadiya told The Indian Express, “It is now confirmed that the label of the marketing and manufacturing details of the syrup was forged. We physically verified the Juhapura address of Healthcare Ayurveda mentioned on the labels and there is no such working agency there… Kotwani and Sevakani also have other cases against them in Vadodara.” Kotwani had previously been arrested in Vadodara city for allegedly running a factory manufacturing fake hand sanitisers.

The FIR stated that during his interrogation, Kishore Sodha admitted that he purchased two boxes containing 50 bottles each of syrup from Yogesh Sindhi of Nadiad during Diwali. “After the suspected deaths of Natu, Arjun and Ashok, Kishore and his brother emptied five remaining bottles in the river and discarded the bottles,” the FIR stated.

Ghadiya said Sodha had been running the provision store for decades but began selling the syrup for the last one year. “He has told us that he began selling the Ayurvedic syrups in the last one year and would procure it from Sindhi… As per the provisions of the Food and Drug Control Administration, the sale of ayurvedic syrups does not require a license but the production of the syrup requires licence.”

The police said that during the investigation, Sindhi revealed that he procured the bottles from Nitin Kotwani and Bhavesh Sevakani of Vadodara and sold them to Kishore Sodha as well as other areas of Anand and Kheda districts. After the suspected deaths of the three victims from Bilodra village, Sindhi, too, allegedly set fire to the remaining bottles of the syrup that were in his possession outside his godown in Veena village of the district. The police, along with FSL teams, have gathered evidence from the spot where Sindhi allegedly burnt the bottles of the syrup, the FIR states.

The accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code sections for culpable homicide not amounting to murder (304), attempt to commit culpable homicide (308), Causing hurt by means of poison (328), forgery (465), forgery of a valuable security (467), committing forgery for the purpose of cheating (468), fraudulently or dishonestly using a forged document as genuine (471), Adulteration of drugs (274), Sale of adulterated drugs (275), Sale of drug as a different drug or preparation (276), criminal act done by several persons in furtherance of the common intention (34), and destruction of evidence (201) as well as Section 65A of the Prohibition Act for Penalty for illegal sale of intoxicant.

Meanwhile, the BJP, in a decision taken on Friday following Kishore Sodha’s arrest, has removed him from the post of treasurer of the Nadiad Taluka unit of the party. In a release signed by the party’s Kheda district President Ajay Brahmabhatt on Friday, the BJP said, “Kishore Sankal Sodha of Bilodra village has been removed as the Treasurer of Nadiad Taluka unit with immediate effect.”