Kheda syrup deaths: Father of accused becomes fourth victim to succumb, sixth arrest made

The SIT on Wednesday received a nine-day remand of Taufiq Mukadam, a resident of Mira Road in Mumbai. Police said that it has been established that Sindhi manufactured the spurious ayurvedic syrup at his Nadiad unit by misusing the Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) license issued to him for ayurvedic manufacturing under Yogi Ayurveda.

Superintendent of Police Rajesh Ghadiya told this newspaper, “The probe has revealed that Mukadam supplied ethanol to Sindhi by transporting the chemical in containers with forged labels… It is confirmed that Sindhi manufactured some of the syrup bottles on his own while some he procured from Nitin Kotwani and Bhavesh Sevakani of Vadodara… We have also recovered 500 empty and a few filled bottles of fake sanitisers from Sindhi’s godown, which are of the same brand and packaging as those recovered by the Vadodara police in April 2021 from Kotwani’s unit in Vadodara.”

Police have also received the FSL report of the sanitisers recovered from Sindhi’s godown, which indicated the presence of methanol. “The use of methanol is prohibited in sanitisers although the compound is available much cheaper than ethanol. The only two compounds that are permitted for use in sanitisers are ethanol or isopropyl alcohol… We are relying on this FSL report to establish the connection of Sindhi with Kotwani and Sevakani. We were unable to recover any sealed bottle of the Ayurvedic syrup as the accused had destroyed all the available sealed bottles after the death of the first three persons and therefore, have been charged for destruction of evidence,” Ghadiya said.

The Kheda SIT is yet to ascertain if Kotwani manufactured the spurious Ayurvedic syrup at his unit and supplied it to Sindhi or procured it from a third source. In December 2021, the Vadodara Prevention of Crime Branch (PCB) had arrested Kotwani for his alleged involvement in for alleged manufacturing of liquor under the guise of an ayurvedic syrup. Earlier in April 2021, Kotwani was jailed for producing methanol-mixed duplicate sanitisers that are injurious to health. After he was released on bail, he got involved in manufacturing alcohol in the guise of producing an ayurvedic concoction. Kotwani, along with other co-accused had been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, forgery among others as well as the Prohibition Act.

The accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections for culpable homicide not amounting to murder (304), attempt to commit culpable homicide (308), Causing hurt using poison (328), forgery (465), forgery of a valuable security (467), committing forgery for 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.

Sankal Sodha was admitted to Ahmedabad Civil Hospital after allegedly consuming the spurious Ayurvedic syrup, according to the hospital superintendent Dr Rakesh Joshi.  Another 40-year-old man, Hemant Chauhan, who had consumed the Ayurvedic syrup, was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday. Dr Joshi added that he was stable, and remained hospitalised only for observation.

With inputs from Sohini Ghosh in Ahmedabad