Hooch claims 18 in Raigad

This is the biggest liquor tragedy to hit the state in the last four years since the December 31, 1993 tragedy in which nearly 100 persons died after consuming country liquor in a bar in Mumbai.

A preliminary investigation revealed that the patients had consumed alcohol adulterated with methanol containing lethal toxins which produce metabolic acidosis in the body.

The decoction, ironically called Khopadi, is locally available for as low as five rupees and made from French polish used in embellishing furniture. Prime suspects in today’s tragedy are a couple who run a flourishing country liquor business. The woman Ayesha Bi has been arrested by the Raigad police while her husband Sheikh Mohammad Abdul Latif Bedekar is absconding.

Six persons died at the Khopoli hospital in Thane district from where they were rushed in an emergency state to the better equipped city hospitals.

“I vomitted at first and then felt darkness fall before my eyes,” said a dazed 35-year-old worker Ramesh Kedari. Hailing from the Madh hamlet, Kedari was one of the survivors still able to tell his tale. He had finished work and gone to a neighbouring hamlet for some Khopadi and had returned home for dinner. He felt the first symptoms of nausea and giddiness after his dinner.

“I was taken to Khopoli hospital where I met other patients with similar complaints. Not all of them survived,” he recounted his harrowing tale, swearing to keep off the drink.

Among 62 persons hospitalised in Mumbai, 39 were taken to the Lokmanya Tilak Memorial General (LTMG) Hospital in Sion, 25 persons including 10 women were admitted in the King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital in Parel. 11 persons died at the LTMG hospital.

The tragedy occurred as a sult of methly alcohol adulteration in ethyl alcohol. “Both men and women in the area are habituated to drinking this stuff after their daily work,” one of the villagers informed. Patients complained of severe abdominal pain, vomiting, giddiness and fell down unconscious.

Doctors fear more deaths. At the LTMG Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, doctors struggled with critically ill patients. “I cannot say whether any of the remaining patients are stable as in such cases their condition deteriorates in a short time,” a frantic dean Dr Rajendra Shirahatti told this newspaper.

Another doctor pointed at a patient who had literally dropped dead. “He was quite well had even helped other affected persons to the hospital,” a doctor explained. “He was dead within a few minutes after complaining of uneasiness.”

He explained that Methyl alcohol had a rebound effect–apparently stable patients develop sudden violent symptoms.

To counter metabolic acidosis the patients were being administered soda-bicarbonate and ethyl alcohol which competes with methyl alcohol and prevents disintegration of the toxins.

At KEM one person died before admission with the condition of six reported to be critical and others kept under observation. Anxious relatives milled around corridors in both hospitals even as their dear ones battled for life.

Doctors were seen administering fluids and glucose to the patients suffering from a decrease in blood-glucose levels, convulsions and breathing difficulties.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi and Deputy CM Gopinath Munde arrived at the KEM hospital in the evening and visited the patients in the casualties ward and general ward.

“We know who the culprit is, but I don’t want to make a statement since police is investigating the case thoroughly,” the CM told this newspaper.

Both the CM and Deputy CM will be visiting affected villages in Raigad on Sunday morning. The State Government is likely to announce an ex-gratia payment to the kin of the dead.

The 1993 tragedy had shocked the Sharad Pawar government into formulating a policy wherein women in the villages could force the closure of bars if these proved to be troublesome. This was done as the government was conscious that it had a lot to lose in excise duties by imposing total prohibition.

While village women were largely unimpressed, there were a few instances where the requisite one third of the fairer sex of each village got together to close down bars in their villages.

When the Sena BJP government took over, shortly thereafter, Deputy CM Gopinath Munde began a concerted campaign to shut down liquor bars along with gambling dens and the state lottery. However, opposition from within the Sena BJP ranks itself and the intervention of Sena supremo Bal Thackeray forced the reversal of this policy.