A spurious liquor tragedy in Bhavnagar district has killed at least seven people and sent more than 30 to hospitals since surfacing on Tuesday evening, after villagers in Kharkhadi, in Ghogha taluka, began falling ill from liquor sold in counterfeit bottles of a popular IMFL brand. District Collector Manish Kumar and senior police officers confirmed the toll is still being updated as more victims are traced.
How it unfolded
The illness first showed up among five people in Kharkhadi village before spreading to other households in the area, according to India TV News, which reported ten patients admitted to Sir T Hospital in Bhavnagar and ten more spread across hospitals in neighbouring districts, with three in critical condition. Investigators traced the adulteration point to the Ambliwadi area of Vartej, and the counterfeit liquor was packaged to resemble a well-known Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) label enough to pass as genuine at first glance. Preliminary findings point to the source as Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, suggesting an inter-state bootlegging supply chain rather than a purely local brewing operation.
Police have arrested a dozen alleged bootleggers and registered an FIR naming 21 people, according to reporting reviewed by The Week. Bhavnagar Range Inspector General R.V. Asari and Superintendent of Police Nitesh Pandey are overseeing the investigation, and the state’s Forensic Science Laboratory and a monitoring cell were deployed on the Deputy Chief Minister’s directions to establish exactly what the victims consumed and how it entered circulation.
Why hooch tragedies keep recurring in a “dry” state
Gujarat has enforced statewide prohibition since 1960, banning the manufacture, sale, and possession of alcohol outright. In practice, prohibition has not eliminated demand. It has pushed the liquor trade underground, where there is no quality control, no labelling standard, and no legal recourse for buyers who cannot verify what they are drinking. Bootleggers frequently cut costs by using methanol or other toxic industrial alcohols instead of potable ethanol, which is what turns an illegal drink into a lethal one. Gujarat has seen hooch deaths in Botad, Ahmedabad, and other districts in past years, each time followed by arrests, inquiry announcements, and, eventually, the news cycle moving on.
What it means for Gujarat residents
For families in Ghogha taluka and nearby villages, the immediate concern is medical: hospitals are still treating critical patients, and the final toll may rise further as authorities confirm additional cases. Beyond the immediate emergency, this incident adds to a pattern that raises uncomfortable questions about enforcement capacity in rural pockets of a state that treats prohibition as a core policy commitment. If the supply chain runs from Madhya Pradesh into Saurashtra, it points to gaps in inter-state monitoring that a single local crackdown cannot fix. Residents of districts near state borders, where illegal liquor is often trucked in, have the most reason to watch how this investigation and any follow-up enforcement action play out.
Outlook
Expect the arrest count and FIR list to grow as police work up the supply chain toward manufacturers and transporters rather than just local sellers. The state government, under scrutiny after previous hooch incidents, will likely announce a review of prohibition enforcement in Saurashtra. Whether that translates into sustained checks at inter-state borders, rather than a short-term crackdown, is the detail worth tracking in the weeks ahead.
Sources: The Week, India TV News, The Tribune
This report was compiled and written with AI assistance from publicly reported sources, and reviewed for accuracy.